garbanzos con chorizo

I bought some dried chickpeas the other day. I've always used canned garbanzos and was curious to see how dried might differ. Coincidentally, I ran across Spain, in 5 ingredients, which happened to use dried garbanzos (plus chicken stock, chorizo, paprika, and kale).

I pulled out my sole book on Spanish cuisine to find out whether a bit of rosemary might be appropriate (it is) and discovered this entertaining tidbit:

Chickpeas (garbanzos) are the potatoes of Spain, growing well through the hot summers. In ancient times, the Romans mocked the chickpea-eating Spanish, suggesting that their enormous consumption of the legume not only indicated stupidity but also induced it.

It also mentioned that garbanzos con chorizo is a classic dish. The five ingredient recipe is clearly a simple rendition. Many recipes, generally with several more ingredients, can be found online (and, oddly, not in my cookbook).

I served it over chard from the garden, which I had, rather than kale, which I did not. The chard is still doing quite well in the greenhouse.

It really does take two hours, and even after that the garbanzos were bordering on water chestnut crunchiness. I'd guess that they could have easily stood another 45 minutes of simmering. It's a low-effort recipe and the results are satisfying, but another 10 minutes to incorporate onions, peppers, maybe some cumin would be time well spent in developing a heartier complexity.