Chickpea Thing

This is a vegan dish and is approximately authentic for Roman and by extension, Anglo-Saxon, as it uses Mediterranean ingredients that the Romans had. (Actually I'm not 100% sure about the cinnamon but at least it's not chilli powder).

The key flavourings are cinnamon and spiced mead (or other sweet wine), but the tastes of the vegetables and pulses should come through too.

Serves 8, especially if you add another dish like a stuffed mushroom per person.

Ingredients

• 8 shallots, peeled and sliced in half (or quarters if they are very large). If the shallots are small you might throw in a few extra.
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced.
• Sunflower oil
• 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 3 tins chickpeas
• Ground coriander, cumin and cinnamon
• Black pepper
• salt
• Dried Herbs
• 2 bags fresh spinach
• 1/2 glass spiced mead (or you could use sherry, or normal mead, or probably cider vinegar - any sweet wine-type thing will probably do)

Method

Fry shallots in oil, fairly hot, for a couple of minutes, then add mushrooms and garlic and fry until softened. Add spices to taste: start with 1 level teaspoon cumin, 1 level teaspoon coriander, 1 level teaspoon cinnamon, and adjust later until you're happy. You should be able to taste the cinnamon but you don't want it to overpower the other ingredients./p>

Add chickpeas and mead, also salt pepper and herbs to taste./p>

Simmer covered for 1/2 an hour, then add spinach and cook for a further 5-10 minutes. Check seasoning, and serve.

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