Chickpeas, bacon and spinach

Sometimes, it's difficult to know what to cook, especially when the fridge is empty and nothing seems to quite fit the bill. It was one of those days where Gordon Ramsey could have turned up with his whole kitchen brigade to cook our dinner and we'd have just mumbled something about not fancying anything on the menu.

I'd almost resigned myself to skipping dinner entirely when I found this post on eats like a girl about a quick stew made from leftovers and random things from the cupboard. I thought, 'hey, I keep chickpeas in case the apocalypse happens and we have to survive without supermarkets, and we've got some bacon, which isn't too far away from chorizo, really, and there's some frozen spinach in the freezer...'

I chopped some bacon up into big chunks and fried it in a hot pan until tinged with brown, adding some chopped onions. The onions softened and in went a drained and rinsed can of chickpeas.

Now the spinach. At this point, I'd like to say that I gently cooked the frozen spinach in a pan, then drained away the excess water, but I didn't, I just threw the frozen chunks into the pan. Bad move, but it all melted and I managed to get rid of the extra water and crisp everything up again. Must remember not to cut corners next time.

I finished the dish with paprika, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of chilli powder for heat.

Excellent with some toast and a simple salad of tomatoes and cucumber on the side.