One-Pan Chickpea and Spinach Stew — Cheap, Filling, and Ready in 30 Minutes
Canned chickpeas + spinach + spices = a real dinner for under $3 a serving.
It's a weeknight, you're tired, and you need something that feels like a meal without costing much or dirtying every pan you own. This chickpea and spinach stew is the answer. It leans on canned chickpeas and a can of diced tomatoes — both pantry staples — plus a handful of spices that do the heavy lifting on flavor. Everything happens in one pan in about 30 minutes. The stew is warming, filling, and genuinely satisfying. It reheats beautifully, so leftovers the next day are a bonus, not a consolation prize.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 unit medium yellow onion — diced
- 4 unit garlic cloves — minced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 0.5 tsp ground coriander
- 0.25 tsp cayenne pepper — optional, adjust to taste
- 1 unit 14 oz can diced tomatoes — with juices
- 2 unit 15 oz cans chickpeas — drained and rinsed
- 1 cup vegetable broth — or water
- 5 oz baby spinach — fresh or frozen and thawed
- 1 tsp kosher salt — plus more to taste
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp lemon juice — from about half a lemon
Method
- 1 Heat the olive oil in a large deep skillet or wide saucepan over medium heat until shimmering.
- 2 Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5–6 minutes until softened and lightly golden.
- 3 Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
- 4 Add the cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, and cayenne (if using). Stir into the onion and garlic and cook for 30 seconds until the spices are toasted and fragrant.
- 5 Pour in the canned diced tomatoes with their juices. Stir to combine and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- 6 Add the drained chickpeas and vegetable broth. Stir everything together, then season with salt and black pepper.
- 7 Bring the stew to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium-low. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly.
- 8 Add the spinach in large handfuls, stirring each addition until wilted before adding more. This takes about 2 minutes total.
- 9 Remove from heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
- 10 Serve as-is, or spoon over rice, crusty bread, or flatbread.
Variations
- Add an egg (vegetarian protein boost) — After adding the spinach, make small wells in the stew and crack an egg into each. Cover the pan and cook over medium-low heat for 4–5 minutes until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. One egg per serving stretches the protein without stretching the budget.
- Faster version (under 20 minutes) — Skip sautéing the onion from scratch — use 1 tsp onion powder instead, and add it with the other spices. Start directly with the garlic (30 seconds), then move straight to the tomatoes, chickpeas, and broth. Cuts about 6 minutes off the cook time.
- Swap the spinach — Kale or Swiss chard both work well here — just chop them roughly and add 2–3 minutes of extra simmering time since they're heartier than spinach. Frozen peas stirred in at the end are an even faster option.
Notes
For a thicker stew, use the back of a spoon or a potato masher to roughly mash about a quarter of the chickpeas directly in the pan before adding the spinach — this makes the broth creamy without any extra ingredients. Frozen spinach works great here; just squeeze out as much water as possible before adding it. This stew keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days and tastes even better the next day.
Equipment that helps
- Large deep skillet or wide saucepan (12-inch) — A wide base lets the onions cook evenly and gives the stew room to simmer without splattering.
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