Spanish bread salad with chorizo, chickpeas and baby spinach

This is the second recipe I've used from my latest prized cookbook - Ross Dobson's Wholefood Kitchen. It's the exact kind of cookbook I've been searching for for months and when I found it and took it home, I read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Plenty of pages are already dog-eared - flagging dozens of recipes that I can't wait to make. Ross champions the kind of food philosophy I've been trying to implement in my own kitchen over the past few weeks, so it's nice to have this little beauty to refer to when meal time comes a knockin'. Wholefood Kitchen encourages the use of produce from farmers' markets, eating food when it is seasonally available and using uncomplicated cooking techniques to showcase good produce at its best. It focuses on creating healthy dishes from wholefoods, particularly beans, lentils, grains and other natural foods as the basis of its simple-yet-delicious recipes.

This tangy mediterranean-style salad was met with plenty of satisfied "mmmms" and a big thumbs up. 

Spanish bread salad with chickpeas, chorizo and baby spinach

Serves 4

Note: This recipe called for a lot more olive oil, however I reduced this and instead of frying the chorizo in oil, I grilled it instead.

4 thick slices organic sourdough bread (I used a medium rye sourdough)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

2 chorizo sausages, thinly sliced

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp Spanish smoked sweet paprika

1/2 tsp dried thyme

400g tin organic chickpeas, rinsed and well drained

250g cherry tomatoes, halved

4 handfuls of baby spinach leaves

2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

sea salt and cracked pepper

Preheat the grill.

Trim the crusts off the bread and discard. Brush both sides of the bread lightly with some of the oil.

Add to the grill and cook until golden and slightly charred on both sides. Rub the garlic cloves over the toasted bread and let cool. Tear into large chunks and set aside.

Grill the chorizo on a tray under the grill until golden and aromatic. Throw into a fry pan on the stove top and add the onion, paprika and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Add some olive oil if necessary. Transfer to a large bowl and pour in the seasoned juices from the pan. Add the toasted bread, chick peas, tomatoes, spinach and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss well to combine. Serve immediately.