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Dinner recipe

Zesty Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice with Parsley

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A vegan dinner with basmati rice, chickpeas, spinach, peas, lemon, parsley, garlic and mild smoked paprika.

Start planningStart cookingIngredients
45 min540 kcal4 base servingsDinnerVeganOne PanFamily Friendly
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Recipe and nutrition estimates

Recipe times, servings, calories and nutrition notes are estimates for planning. They are not medical or dietary advice. Check food is cooked safely and adjust recipes for your household's needs.

Focus ingredients: chickpeas, basmati rice, baby spinach

Dietary fit: Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-free, Gluten-free

Serving tip: Cool rice rapidly in shallow portions, ideally within 1 hour, and refrigerate at 0–5°C. Use within 24 hours and reheat only once until steaming hot throughout. Keep chilled during transport. For larger households, cook no more than 4 base servings in each set of the listed pans; use additional pans or repeat the complete batch. Extra sequential batches add the stated cooking time. Divide all listed ingredients between batches before starting.

Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice plated and ready to serve.

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Ingredients

What you need

  • 300g basmati rice
  • 2 × 400 g tins chickpeas
  • 180g baby spinach
  • 200g frozen peas
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 lemon
  • 15g flat leaf parsley
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1500ml water

You'll also need

4l sauté pan, 3l rice saucepan, pea saucepan, sieve, grater, knife

Method

Step by step

Up to 8 clear steps
  1. Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice cooking step 1: Prep the base.
    Step 1

    Prep the base

    For more than 4 servings, first divide all ingredients into batches of no more than 4 servings. Listed amounts are totals; use each batch’s share when following the steps in its own set of pans. Finely chop the onion, grate the garlic, drain and rinse the chickpeas, rinse the basmati rice until the water runs mostly clear, zest the whole lemon before halving it, then juice one half and cut the other into wedges, and roughly chop the parsley.

    10 min
  2. Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice cooking step 2: Soften the aromatics.
    Step 2

    Soften the aromatics

    Start the rinsed basmati rice in a separate saucepan of all the listed boiling water. Boil uncovered for 10–12 minutes or the packet time, until tender, then drain. Meanwhile heat all the olive oil in the sauté pan and soften the onion for 5 minutes; add garlic, paprika and cumin for 1 minute.

    6 min
  3. Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice cooking step 3: Toast rice and chickpeas.
    Step 3

    Heat chickpeas

    Add the drained canned chickpeas to the spiced onions and stir over medium heat for 4–5 minutes until steaming hot. Lower the heat while the rice finishes.

    3 min
  4. Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice cooking step 4: Simmer the rice.
    Step 4

    Cook peas and spinach

    Cook all the frozen peas in a separate saucepan following their packet and drain. Return them to that pan with the spinach and stir over medium heat for 1–2 minutes until the spinach has wilted and everything is steaming hot.

    20 min
  5. Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice cooking step 5: Fold in greens.
    Step 5

    Fold in greens

    Fold all the drained rice, peas and spinach into the hot chickpea mixture. Stir in the lemon zest, juice from the reserved half lemon and half the parsley.

    5 min
  6. Lemon Chickpea Spinach Rice cooking step 6: Serve with parsley.
    Step 6

    Serve with parsley

    Divide between the planned servings, scatter over the remaining half of the parsley and serve all the remaining lemon wedges.

    2 min