Chole Saag – Spinach and Chickpea Curry

I am always looking at vegetarian Indian dishes, not because I’m a vegetarian, but as a side dish or a meat free alternative and as we often have vegetarian guests when we do our theme evenings for my wife’s colleagues it is good to have a few good recipes at hand and I find that many traditional Indian meat dishes that I like don’t really enough vegetables in them. Having a few non meat dishes makes for more interesting eating too.

This dish is from Northern Indian where chick peas are often used and is also known as Palak Chole or Chana Saag. Chana or chole meaning chick peas and palak or saag is spinach. These dishes often have a thick rich gravy and are usually eaten with a bread of some sort depending on the region and yogurt.

When I cook recipes like this it is always as an accompaniment to another dish.

This one is a definite keeper, give it a try!

Serves 2 as a main or more as a side dish

ingredients:

  1-2 tbsp rapeseed oil
  Half tsp mustard seeds
  1 tsp cumin seeds
  1 large onion, diced
  4 cloves of garlic, crushed
  200g tin plum tomatoes
  800g or 2 tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  1 tsp salt or to taste
  1 heaped tsp coriander seeds, crushed
  1 green chili, chopped
  1 tsp red chili powder
  1 tsp turmeric
  200g spinach, chopped
  1 green chili, sliced for garnish

Preparation method:

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and when it’s hot add the mustard seeds and then the cumin seeds.

Stir for a minute until you can smell the aroma of the cumin seeds and the mustard seeds stop sizzling, then add the diced onions.

Fry the onions for about 15 minutes until they are golden then add the garlic. Fry together for a further couple of minutes then add the tomatoes, stir and leave to cook for a few minutes. Add a little water if required.

Add the crushed coriander, green chili, chili powder, turmeric and salt and leave to cook on a gentle heat until the tomatoes start to break down and create a thick masala sauce about 10 to 15 minutes.

Turn the heat up to thicken the sauce a little if needed.

Add the chickpeas and stir to coat them with the masala. Add a splash of water and let them simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the chopped spinach, a handful at a time stirring in between. Leave this to cook for 5 minutes until the spinach is soft and tender.

Top with the sliced chili and chopped coriander serve with poori with some fresh plain yoghurt.

Enjoy!