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Braised Chickpeas with Spinach and Haloumi with Crisp Onions and Mojo Verde

Braised Chickpeas with Spinach and Haloumi with Crisp Onions and Mojo Verde
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         This dish really ought to come with a passport.  It has undercurrents of India with its cumin and coriander.  But the Haloumi cheese is pure Greek. The chickpeas could be Indian or Italian or German. And if we called them “Garbanzos”, they would be as Spanish as the incredibly delicious “Mojo Verde” that accompanies them.  To top off all this culinary globe-trotting, I found the recipe in Cuisine, a New Zealand food magazine.  So if you feel like singing “We are the World” while cooking this incredible vegetarian feast, go right ahead.

The delicious Braised Chickpeas made the
lamb chops seem superfluous. 

  I’d bought Cuisine when doing a survey of international food magazines.  And I clipped this recipe because it looked so intriguing and the ingredients were so enticing.  The first time I made it, I followed Cuisine’s advice and served it with some simple lamb chops, ignoring their note that this was “a fine vegetarian meal”.  The truth was that the chickpea dish was so good and the mojo so full of flavor, it made the lamb chops seem like an afterthought.  I wanted another opportunity to make the dish so Andrew and I called up our very good vegetarian friend, Stephen, and invited him to dinner. Within a week I was making a huge platter of chickpeas laced with baby spinach, topped with grilled cheese, crisp onions and a deliciously vinegary garlic and cilantro sauce.  It was a huge hit.  And here’s the surprise: it took all of 25 minutes to make. 
        The recipe comes in four parts.  Do not be put off by that.  Each part is simple to make and the combination of flavors and textures is delicious.   It’s the perfect meatless meal. Here is the recipe for 4 servings.



3 thoughts on “Braised Chickpeas with Spinach and Haloumi with Crisp Onions and Mojo Verde”

  • This looks so flavorful and satisfying. We love all the ingredients, but I may not be able to find haloumi in my small Midwestern town. Would any other cheese work?

  • Hi Nancy! This really is a wonderful dish and I am sure you'd love its wonderful flavors. The Haloumi cheese is remarkable in that you can fry it which, lets face it, isn't something you can do with a lot of other cheeses. It is similar in taste to Feta so you might substitute that, not fried but crumbled over the dish. Mozzarella has a somewhat similar texture but again, I don't think it would fry either. Do let me know what your results are. And thanks so much for your comment.

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