For the vegetable stock:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Celery
• Leek
• Tomato
• Soja sauce
• Sesame oil

For the thistles:

• Tender onion
• Leek
• Zucchini
• Thistles
• Red wine

For the spinachs:

• A bunch of spinachs
• Macadamia nuts

Let’s start preparing the vegetable stock. Fry the onion, a couple of mashed garlic cloves, the leek and the celery over a high heat, so that the vegetables acquire a brownish colour. Then, place the vegetables in a casserole with cold water together with a tomato (to confer an acid touch), a generous splash of soja sauce and a little bit of sesame oil. Be careful with the sesame oil, as it has a very intense taste. We recommend you to start preparing the stock the previous day. In this way, the flavours will be concentrated and the stock will have settled down. The result is worth it.

Please bear in mind to leave the chickpeas to soak overnight in water. Try to start cooking them at the beginning. Remember, always start from cold water and over a not too high heat. Once the chickpeas are tender, cool them down and do not throw away the water used to cook them.

Before starting to prepare the stir-fry, we have to cook the thistles. Cut the ends if these are dry and remove the stringy parts. Then, chop the thistles as you wish, and now we can prepare the stir-fry. Now proceed to fry the vegetables as always, first the onion, and then the leek and the thinly chopped zucchini. Add the thistles, fry until these get a brownish colour, and wash down with a generous splash of red wine. Leave the mixture to boil down and then add the vegetable stock little by little until the thistles are tender. The thistles will be well cooked after approximately half an hour. If you do not have enough vegetable stock, you can also use water.

When the thistles are almost ready, prepare a frying pan over a medium heat and toast the macadamia nuts in slices. Add the raw spinach leaves and lightly fry both ingredients. Be careful at this point because the spinach leaves contain a lot of water so oil can be spitted.

Finally, add the chickpeas and the spinachs to the thistles. You can add as much vegetable stock as you want. You can also use the chickpeas stock; this will result in a thicker texture.

Enjoy this winter recipe. From Create&Share we encourage you all to try out in-season products, such as thistles. Sometimes, there are certain products that, due to different reasons, seem hard to cook. However, the result is outstanding.

Bon Appetit!