Sag Aloo

As well as harvesting loads of lettuce, I picked a huge bagful of spinach at the weekend, and planned several spinachy dinners for the week!

Monday was this fabulous Sag Aloo, with rice and a cashew nut curry. Please excuse the sub-par picture - I was in rather a hurry to eat it...

The recipe is basically from Sarah Raven's wonderful 'Garden Cookbook', but I'll post my slightly tweaked version here for you:

Sag Aloo
(serves four as a side dish)

• Cut 500g new potatoes into bitesize chunks.
• Steam 250-300g spinach until cooked. Big leaves will do and there's no need to remove the stems or anything fancy. Drain it and squeeze the excess water out by pressing it into a seive with a wooden spoon (save the water for the veg stock so the nutrients don't go to waste!) then chop it roughly.
• Fry 1 tsp mustard seeds in a little oil until they start to pop, then add 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, a chopped onion, 3 or 4 chopped garlic cloves and some grated ginger. Cook gently until the onions are soft - about 5 minutes.
• Add the potatoes and coat them in the spices, then add 200ml veg stock and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
• Check seasoning and add the spinach. Stir in and continue to cook until the potatoes are done; a few more minutes. You want the liquid to reduce right down, but don't let it dry out completely - add more water if you need to.

The original recipe says to add 1 tsp Garam Masala right at the end of cooking. I forgot. But it was still absolutely delicious, and since I was serving this with another curry containing Garam Masala, it was a welcome variation.

I also reheated the leftovers with some tomatoes wedges and chickpeas the next day for a second scrummy dinner!

I might just post the cashew nut curry recipe here too, when I've finished perfecting it...