Indian Curried Spinach Dip Food

INDIAN CURRIED SPINACH DIP

Steps:

• Pull thawed and drained spinach apart and place it in a small bowl to use later.
• Mix cumin, curry powder, turmeric, and cayenne pepper together in a bowl and set spice mixture aside.
• Dissolve bouillon cube in warm water in a bowl and set aside.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 3 minutes. Add spice mixture and spinach to the skillet and stir well to combine. Pour vegetable bouillon into the skillet. Reduce heat to low and simmer until most of the moisture has cooked off, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Mix yogurt and cream cheese into the spinach mixture in the skillet. Season with salt and pepper.

SPINACH CURRY (INDIAN PALAK CURRY)

Steps:

• Rinse and chop onions, spinach, ginger, garlic and green chillies.

SAAG (INDIAN SPINACH)

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, saute onion in oil on medium high along with ginger and garam masala until onions are translucent and begin to pick up some color.
• Add minced garlic to pan, and cook briefly to soften. Do not allow the garlic to burn - lower heat if necessary.
• Add tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes. Incidentally, you can add a little more or less tomato depending on what you have available, slight differences in quantity will not be noticeable.
• Stir in yogurt. Do not worry if the yogurt separates.
• Add curry powder, coriander, cumin, sugar, and salt.
• Add bag of frozen spinach and mix well to combine. There is no need to defrost first if you use a the bagged spinach. If you are using the frozen block, I would advise defrosting first. You can also use the equivalent of fresh spinach.
• Add about a cup of water to the pot and cover. Simmer on medium for approximately 30 minutes. Spinach is done when the color has changed from the initial bright green to a much less vibrant green (almost brownish). If you crank up the heat, it is possible to cook this a little faster, but you have to pay attention to the moisture level. You may have to add more water throughout the cooking process if it cooks off.
• Once the spinach is fully cooked, remove the lid and cook off any remaining liquid. The spinach should be moist, but there should not be much liquid free in the bottom of the pan.
• Remove pan from heat.
• Using an immersion blender, blender, or food processor, puree the spinach. Leave it as chunky as you like. You can also choose to puree only half of the mixture if you like bigger pieces of spinach.
• Add further salt to taste.
• I have found that I have to fine tune the spices every time I make this dish depending on how I feel that day. For me, adding further small amounts of coriander is the key.
• If you like, potatoes, paneer cubes or chick peas may be added at this point.
• ***NOTE*** It is very helpful to prepare all ingredients in advance of cooking so that they can be added quickly during the cooking process. I recommend combining the components of each step beforehand (i.e. pre-measuring the spices together) so that you can just dump everything in quickly as you go.

EASY INDIAN CREAMED SPINACH

Steps:

• In a large skillet, sauté spinach in ¼ cup water over medium-high heat until wilted, about 5 minutes. Remove cooked spinach from the pan and set aside to cool. **Skip this pre-cooking step if using frozen spinach**
• In the same pan, add the olive oil and reduce heat to medium, then add the tomato, garlic powder, onion powder, garam masala, jalapeño, turmeric, ginger, and salt. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes or until tomato is soft. Using the back of a wooden spoon, smash the tomato into the bottom of the pan to break it up.
• Once the pre-cooked spinach has completely cooled, squeeze out any excess water and run a knife through it to chop it up. (If using frozen chopped spinach, thaw it and squeeze all the water out of it).
• Add the chopped spinach to the pan with the spiced tomato mixture, stir well to combine, and heat through. Reduce heat to low.
• Add the heavy cream to the spinach mixture and stir well. Simmer over low heat until mixture is heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

QUICK AND EASY SAAG BHAJI {SPINACH CURRY}

Steps:

• Heat the oil & butter on medium-high heat in a large, nonstick frying pan. Add the chopped onion and fry until it starts to brown.
• Add the minced garlic and cook another minute. Add the ginger and cook another minute.
• Add the cumin, turmeric, garam masala, and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Slowly stir in the stock, followed by the cilantro.
• Add the spinach cook until it wilts season to taste.

EASY INDIAN CURRY DIP

Steps:

• Mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, curry powder, turmeric, onion, lemon juice, garlic salt, cumin, and cayenne in a bowl. Stir until well combined. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

SPINACH AND CHEESE CURRY (PALAK PANEER)

Steps:

• If you are using fresh spinach leaves, blanch. To blanch the spinach, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop spinach leaves in the pot and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and drain the water.
• If you are using frozen spinach leaves, steam. To steam the spinach, bring a large pot of water to boil. Put frozen spinach in a colander or steamer and place inside the pot. Cover and steam for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
• In a blender, combine onion, ginger, chili and half of the spinach with 1/2 cup of water. Blend to a smooth paste.
• Heat oil in a deep, heavy bottomed saucepan on medium. Add bay leaf, cinnamon and peppercorns. When the spices start sizzling, add the onion-spinach paste. Sauté and cook for two minutes until the mixture starts becoming richer and darker in colour. Reduce heat to low.
• Blend the remaining spinach with 1/2 cup of water to a smooth paste. Add this to the saucepan. Add cumin, salt and nutmeg. Add the paneer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then to make sure the curry doesn't stick. Feel free to add a bit of water if you think the curry is becoming too thick.
• Adjust seasoning, add cream and chaat masala (if using) and cook for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve hot with naan bread or rice.
• My Notes -
• Indian restaurants usually deep fry the paneer cubes before adding to the curry. This tastes sensational and must be tried at least once. If you would like the smokey flavour of the paneer but want a healthier option, grill the paneer on a griddle or hot plate before adding to your curry.
• This dish is also great as a chunky dip served with poppadums at an Indian banquet.

INDIAN SPINACH SALAD

Steps:

• Combine vinegar, oil, chutney, sugar, curry powder and mustard in a jar. Shake and chill. Place torn spinach in a large bowl; top with apples, raisins, peanuts and green onions. Shake dressing and pour over salad and toss. Prep time does not include refrigeration time for dressing.

CURRIED SPINACH DIP

Steps:

• Stir curry and cumin in small dry skillet over medium-low heat just until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Remove from heat.
• Combine chopped spinach, nonfat sour cream, nonfat yogurt and minced garlic in processor. Blend until spinach is pureed. Add curry mixture and hot sauce and process until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. (Can be prepared 4 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)