Indian Spinach With Tomatoes Food

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.

SPINACH AND TOMATO DAL (INDIAN LENTIL SOUP)

Steps:

• Bring lentils and 4 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Stir in salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook at a simmer 10 minutes. Skim off any scum that forms and continue to simmer until the lentils are tender, about 1 hour.
• Heat the oil in a separate saucepan. Cook mustard seeds and cumin seeds in hot oil until they start to splatter, 2 to 3 minutes. Add onion, garlic, and turmeric to the seeds; cook and stir until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir spinach, tomato, and cayenne pepper into the onion mixture; cook until the spinach wilts and the tomato is tender, about 5 minutes.
• Stir the cooked lentils and cilantro into the spinach mixture; bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Adjust salt and water to taste and texture preferences.

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.

SPINACH WITH TOMATO (SAAG)

Steps:

• Put the oil in a large, wide pot and set over medium-high heat. When very hot, put in the chile, onions and garlic. Stir and fry until the onions turn medium brown. Add the tomato. Stir and fry for 2 minutes. Now put in the spinach and salt. Cover, allowing the spinach to wilt. Stir, turn the heat to medium, cover again, and cook for 25 minutes. Uncover, add the garam masala, and stir. Cook, uncovered, another 5 to 6 minutes, or until almost no liquid is left is left at the bottom of the pan. Turn up the heat during this period, if needed.

CHICKPEAS WITH TOMATOES & SPINACH

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a wok and fry the onion over a low heat until softened. Stir in the garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for a further 5 mins until the onions are golden and the garlic slightly toasted.
• Add the turmeric, garam masala and cumin, stirring over a low heat for a few secs. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and add the tomato purée, then simmer for 5 mins.
• Add the chickpeas to the pan with 300ml water (fill the can three-quarters full). Simmer for 10 mins before stirring in the spinach to wilt. Season and serve with rice or naan.

ALOO PALAK (INDIAN POTATOES & SPINACH)

Steps:

• In a pan cook the spinach with garlic, ginger, onions and the green chilies for about 5-10 minutes.
• Remove from the pan and blend to a fine puree and keep aside.
• In the meantime boil the potatoes with salt and turmeric until done, apprximately 10 minutes and set aside when done.
• Heat ghee in a pan, fry cumin seeds along with spinach-onion paste and simmer for a few minutes.
• Add the cooked potatoes, garam masala, coriander and cumin powder and a little water if needed.
• Simmer for few minutes till the potatoes absorb the flavor.
• Add fresh cream if desired.