I love all things “one pot”. Cooking everything in one pot or skillet just makes my life so much easier, and when everything cooks together, all the flavor stays in the pot! This simple Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf is like a classic “beans and rice” meal, but elevated. It’s still super inexpensive and filling, but it has tons of herbs and spices, some extra greens to keep things well rounded, plus bright pops of fresh lemon and salty feta. SO GOOD.
Serve as a Side Dish or Main
Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf is a tasty little skillet dish that can easily be used as a side dish for roasted meat (I’m thinking something like Herb Roasted Pork Loin or Greek Marinated Chicken), or can be served in bigger portions as a vegetarian main dish. With its herby flavor and bright pops of lemon and feta, it definitely has enough going on to stand on its own. I’m going to be eating it as a main dish this week, probably sometimes topped with a fried egg (because I luuuuurv my fried eggs).
Fresh Lemon is Key
Fresh lemon is really key for this recipe. You’ll be using both the juice and the zest. Fresh lemon zest adds a TON of lemony flavor, without all the extra acidity that the juice brings. Single lemons can be pricey on their own, so consider buying a bag of lemons and freezing them. Frozen lemons work great for juicing and zesting (but not slicing). Learn how to freeze whole citrus here.
What Kind of Skillet works Best?
For any one pot recipe you want to make sure you’re using a quality piece of cookware that is thick, heavy, and transmits heat evenly. If the cookware is too thin you’re likely to get hot and cold spots and the rice will not cook evenly. A wide bottomed (12-inch wide) soup pot would also work. And lastly, you need to make sure to use a skillet or pot that has a tight fitting lid. I’m using a 4 quart OXO stainless steel covered deep skillet (affiliate link).
Can you Freeze Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf?
Yes ma’am! This one should freeze very well, so if you have leftovers don’t let them go to waste! Just divide the Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf into single portions, place in freezer-safe reusable food storage containers, cool completely in the refrigerator, then transfer to the freezer. The frozen pilaf should be good for about 3 months. Reheat in the microwave first using the defrost function, then heat through on high.
Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf
Servings 4 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 1 fresh lemon ($0.37)
- 1/2 lb. frozen chopped spinach ($0.79)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 cup long grain white rice (uncooked) ($0.66)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin ( $0.03)
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($0.55)
- 1 3/4 cup vegetable broth ($0.23)
- 1 oz. feta, crumbled ($0.38)
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper (optional) ($0.02)
Instructions
- Zest the lemon, set the zest aside, then squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Thaw the spinach in the microwave and then squeeze out the excess liquid.
- Mince the garlic and dice the onion. Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat in a deep skillet until the onion are soft and translucent (about 3-5 minutes).
- Add the smoked paprika, oregano, cumin, and dry rice to the skillet. Stir and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes to toast the rice and spices. You should hear the rice popping and it should begin to look slightly translucent.
- Drain the chickpeas and add them to the skillet along with the spinach. Add about 2 Tbsp of the lemon juice and the vegetable broth to the skillet, then stir the ingredients to combine.
- Place a lid on the skillet and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow it to come to a boil, then immediately turn it down to low or just above low. Let the skillet continue to simmer for 15 minutes, with the lid in place. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it sit undisturbed for an additional 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and fluff the skillet with a fork to redistribute the chickpeas and spinach. Sprinkle the lemon zest and crumbled feta over the skillet just before serving.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
How to Make Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf – Step by Step Photos
Zest one lemon and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Set the zest and juice aside. Thaw ½ lb. frozen spinach in the microwave, then squeeze out the excess liquid.
Dice one yellow onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Add them to a deep skillet (4 quart) along with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are softened.
Add 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice, 1 tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp dried oregano, and ¼ tsp cumin to the skillet.
Continue to cook and stir over medium heat for about 2 minutes to toast the rice and spices. You should hear the rice popping and crackling, and it should begin to look a little translucent.
Drain one 15 oz. can of chickpeas, then add them to the skillet along with the spinach, 1.75 cups vegetable broth and 2 Tbsp of the lemon juice.
Stir the contents of the skillet until they are evenly combined. Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow it to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to just above low, and let it simmer for 15 minutes (lid in place, no stirring). After simmering for 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest, without lifting the lid, for another 5 minutes.
After resting for 5 minutes with no heat, lift the lid. The spinach and chickpeas will have all floated to the top, so use a fork to fluff the rice and redistribute the ingredients.
Finally, top the cooked pilaf with the lemon zest and crumbled feta.
Serve immediately or divide and refrigerate for later.
I made this recipe last week. I doubled the recipe and I freezed some for lunches. It was delicious! Don’t skip the lemon; it’s a must.
thanks,
Love this dish. It has become a family favourite especially for ‘Meatless Mondays’ and I have shared it around the office and received many thanks. We all make our own alterations (subbing in fresh spinach, omitting feta, stirring in salsa, adding chicken) and somehow it always turns out great!
Very nice – extra star for the egg!
Thank you!
Made for my toddler. She loved picking the chickpeas out to eat. She normally loves spinach, but didn’t like it in this format. Perhaps she is use to eating fresh spinach and has never had frozen. We also liked this dish, we just added salt to our servings. Plan on serving leftovers tomorrow with a crumbled veggie burger in it.
Replying to add rating. 😀
Another great recipe. We had this with fried eggs and fruit. My boys cleaned their plates and went back for seconds. We have some left over so I want to pair it with tuna with a couple of splashes of garlic vingerette as a lettuce cup. Oooohhhh, I’m excited!!!
All right, so I’m super terrible at commenting on blogs, but I really had to thank you for this recipe. I’m starting a third year straight of financial crisis, and as a result suffering a terrible diet from the stress/lack of income that leaves me feeling terribly physically, and also packing on tons of weight (eating ramen cups, dollar menu Taco Bell, and plain white pasta with butter because you’re too depressed/dirt poor to make an actual meal will do that to you).
I’ve heard of and been linked to your site for quite some time, and even though your blog caters to my specific situation, full of delightful drool worthy pictures, for some reason I always felt everything would be too unapproachable and intimidating for a lazy, poor, unhealthy eater and newbie to “real” cooking like me.
However, I tried this recipe a few weeks ago, because as simple as the ingredients are, it instantly sparked an interest in me and i found it rather intriguing. I’m pretty unconfident with my cooking abilities, so the first time I pretty much stuck to your recipe down to a T, other than using chicken broth because that’s all I had, and adding black olives because I’m going through a random olive phase and i feel they pair well for me with spinach/chickpeas/lemon. it was surprisingly hearty, and as simple as the recipe is, I felt VERY grown up serving up and eating this nice little combo. (This is a sad revelation, seeing that I’m 31).
this week was a particularly bad one, and I’ve been living off a pot of spaghetti and canned pasta sauce for three days. the only saving grace was knowing that I could probably put together a modified version of this recipe tonight, as a pre-pay day celebration (wow, my life is lame). I already had a can of chick peas and olives from the last time I made this, the biggest difference was I had to make do with a bag of mixed veggies in leui of the spinach. I noticed in your comments you’re very encouraging of substitutions and working with what you got, so I gave it a go. The olives felt a bit more out of place this time with the mixed veggies, so I lost out on the Mediterranean-ish vibe of your original recipe, but I’m still scarfing it down as I type this and my belly is happy I’m feeding it something more nutritious and complex than 99% of my past month’s diet.
Seriously, knowing in the back of my mind I could make this today made my week livable. Otherwise I guarantee i would have ended up eating some questionably 4 day old leftovers and feeling like CRAP!!! Again, I tend to be reluctant about cooking, and taking care of my body falls to dead last of my priorities when I have other issues, but I truly feel like small things like this will really help me lead to a better lifestyle. Sorry for the tl;dr whining, but Thank you!
ps- also tried your Dragon noodles multiple times, and my boyfriend loves his ‘sriacha noodle.’ only way I’ve been able to get him to eat a big bowl of heavy carbs (he doesnt stress eat like me and pig out on carbs when he can afford not to). Makes me feel a little less guilty when we are dirt poor and I can only afford a bag of pasta or rice to get us through the week!
Awesome!! I’m so glad that you took the plunge and tried something new AND that it worked out so well for you. :) Hang in there, small changes like this really do lead to big results!
I don’t know if you’ll see this, but you might have good luck with this too: I modified the southwest chicken skillet by subbing a can of drained corn kernels for the cooked chicken, pretty much leaving the rest of the recipe intact (https://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/05/southwest-chicken-skillet/). The corn adds a nice touch of sweetness and texture against the rest of the spices, and the substitution makes it even easier, plus a touch cheaper [especially if you’re not finding meat for as cheap as Beth does]. If you can, pick up a head of green or red leaf lettuce (usually around $1.49 each at stores in my area) and serve these kinds of dishes with a simple side salad to be good to your body. Best of luck!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely deeeeeelish! Perfect balance of spices and a nice brightness from the lemon. It was a smash hit! After my husband, my two toddlers and I snarfed it up there was barely enough left for my husband’s lunch. It feels so good to make a healthy dish for my fam that they actually enjoy! I can’t wait to make it again. Thanks a mil! PS. I used brown rice and fresh spinach (cuz that’s what I had on hand) and didn’t have to adjust any liquid amts or cooking times. Turned out perfect! Cheers!
This is really good! I didn’t have a lemon but it was still tasty. I used brown rice and just followed the directions on the bag (2 cups of broth and about 50 minutes cooking time) and added the chickpeas and spinach when it had 20 minutes left to cook.
This looks delish & I’d really like to make this tonight for dinner to accompany turkey burgers. However, I just bought a bag of white jasmine rice, will that still work? Thanks!
Yep, jasmine rice cooks up pretty much the same as white rice (they’re both long grain, so they take about the same amount of water).
It worked great and is absolutely delish! Using the leftovers tonight for a base with chili:) This is a dish that will definitely be on repeat this winter.
This was perfect! My only mistake was not putting in enough spinach: I was ‘measuring’ by eye and I said, ‘Enough’ after just a handful. It was still amazing, though…
Just made this for the first time last night. I toasted some pecan pieces in the dry skillet before I started and stirred them in at the end. It turned out to be a fabulous addition. (I also tripled the feta and was heavy handed with the spices.) i served it with your Maple Dijon Chicken Thighs. Excellent meal!
Love it!! So easy and delicious and easily modified to what’s in your kitchen. I added frozen peas, a couple of cans of tuna and different spices and still delicious! I’ve already added to my recipe book
This one was just OK for me. My husband really liked it, but I felt like the frozen spinach taste really overwhelmed the rest of the dish in a not so pleasant way. I do like the simplicity of this recipe, though, and the combination of ingredients. I might try it again sometime with a little less spinach and see if that suits my tastes better.
Can thus be made with brown rice and if so, in what order would the ingredients be added?
This was yummy and healthy. I would make it again. My husband liked it a lot better with sriracha on top. Unfortunately my toddler wouldn’t touch it though (spinach may have been the culprit).