Squid and Chickpea Stew

One of the dishes that stood out for me from my holiday was the Baby Squid with Beans from La Boqueria and another was the Cuttlefish and Chickpeas from Alta Taberna Paco Meralgo, both in Barcelona.

Both of these dishes were a combination of seafood and legumes which I had never seen together before, but the taste was something that has stayed in my memory and was something I have been eager to reproduce back home.

After looking through some of my Spanish cookbooks, I couldn't find a recipe for either dish and after searching the net for recipes, I combined aspects of several recipes into what I hoped would be close to the flavours I recalled.

Another great thing about this dish is that most of the ingredients were things I already had in the pantry, and the others were very easy to find. In fact I managed to pick up most of the ingredients from one of the local asian groceries.

Let's start with the squid. I bought them whole and had the fishmonger clean them for me, although they are very easy to clean, especially if you're planning on cutting them up and don't need to keep the tubes whole.


Scary looking creatures, aren't they! One part that the fishmonger didn't clean was the beak, which can be found at the centre of where the legs join the head.

These are very easy to remove, just pinch the mouth and it pretty much just pops out. After that, it was a simple matter to cut the legs away from the head and slice the tubes into bite-sized pieces and put them with the rest of the ingredients.

Parsley, the sliced squid, minced garlic, chickpeas and a glass of their liquid, a knob of butter, red pepper flakes and smoked paprika.

In a pot over medium-low heat, I heated a couple of tablespoons of oil and added the chopped butter and let it heat up until it was foaming.

At this point, I added the minced garlic and shortly after, the red pepper flakes.


Stirring constantly, I waited for the garlic to start cooking, but not so much that it started to go brown. Just as the garlic started to colour, I added in the chickpeas and their liquid. I also added in a few pinches of salt and pepper.

Stirring occasionally, I added a few splashes of white wine and brought it to a simmer. At this point, it was time for the squid.

Even though the stew looks quite dry at this point, there was no need to add any further liquid, as the squid cooks, it releases a considerable amount of liquid of its own. Now it as good a time as any to add the smoked paprika.


You can see how much water has been released by the squid and the great colour from the paprika. I kept this simmering away until the liquid had reduced by about half.

All it needed now was a handful of chopped parsley and a plate.


This is not the prettiest looking dish to look at, but what it lacked in appearance it certainly made up for in flavour. This brought the memories of Spain flooding back and was as good as I had hoped. The deep, earthy and savoury elements of this dish combine with the briney, seafood flavour without overpowering it. This combination continues to surprise me with how good it really tastes and I know I'll be craving it again soon.

Squid and Chickpea Stew

Ingredients:

1kg Chickpeas - canned
1cup Liquid from the chickpeas
750g Squid - Cleaned and sliced
4-5 cloves Garlic - minced
Knob of Butter
1-2 tbsp Olive Oil
Dried Red Pepper Flakes - to taste
Smoked Paprika - to taste
Handful of Parsley - chopped

Method:

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