Chorizo, Beans and Kale

A fairly quick and easy dinner this evening, which was inspired by something similar that we saw on television over the weekend and then backed up by something in a Spanish cookbook. However, these both used chickpeas and there were various other different ingredients, so we are claiming this as our own. Mostly because it turned out well; if it had turned out rubbish them I’m sure we would be disowning it and blaming someone else.

The recipe goes something like this:
100g dry haricot (navy) beans, soaked overnight and then boiled until almost cooked
400g tin of plum tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
100g cooking chorizo
1 tsp paprika (optional)
1 medium onion, sliced finely
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Decent amount of kale leaves, or some spinach or chard
few sprigs of thyme
oil for frying
salt and pepper
250ml vegetable stock

Chop the chorizo into smallish pieces, and fry in a little oil until starting to take on some colour and crisp up a bit. After this, I tipped out most of the chorizo oil, but if you’re not trying to be healthy then leave it in there as it does have a lovely flavour. Then add the onions and stir – if you did tip out the chorizo oil then you’ll need to add some more olive oil for the onions. When the onions have softened a little, add the garlic and also the paprika if using – the chorizo does contain quite a lot of paprika anyway.

Blend the tomatoes into a passata-like consistency – we just did this with a hand blender and it worked fine. Pour that in and also add the beans, the thyme, a squeeze of lemon juice and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Add a little of stock if needed, and let it all heat through and cook together a bit. You don’t need to do this for very long, but we let it go for a while to cook down a bit as we tasted it and thought that it needed to.

When you are a few minutes away from the end of cooking, add the kale or spinach and let that cook through, then check for seasoning and serve! You can serve it on its own, or with some crusty bread or some rice if you prefer.