We were traveling back from a lovely day at the beach a couple of months ago my hubby suggested that we stopped at an Indian take away and pick up a couple of curries. That way, we could continue relaxing and I wouldn’t have to spend too much time cooking a meal in the kitchen. We stopped at a village not too far from us and and picked up two curries – Saag paneer and mixed vegetable curry. I asked the restaurant to make the curries spicy and with some gravy too.
We got home and I made some rice. When I opened the takeaway containers, I was so disappointed to see the presentation of the curries and even more so the bland taste. I called the restaurant and complained about the two curries and was told by the manager that their curries were made for western palate!! So westerners – I feel sorry for you as you are not being served authentic curries!! I did threaten to give the restaurant a bad review but the manager apologized and asked me to spend some time with him and help him come up with some spicy vegetarian dishes. I haven’t taken up his offer as yet as I have been too busy recently – plus I didn’t think I should be giving up my time without getting paid for it.
Here are pictures of the two curries we had: The saag paneer was dry with hardly any paneer. And the mixed vegetables was also dry and seemed to have loads of carrots. Not really appetizing at all.
I made this really quick and easy Spinach curry (also called Saag in some restaurants) as we were hungry and didn’t have time to make an elaborate meal. I usually serve spinach curry with khichedi and chapatis but on this occasion we had it with rice and naan bread.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of leaf spinach (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup of tinned tomatoes
- 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic
- 2-3 green chillies (or less)
- 1tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbs sunflower oil
- 1 tbs melted butter or a vegan substitute like Vitalite
- 1 tbs room temperature butter
- half cup fresh single cream (Vegans can use a soya substitute- even soya yogurt works fine)
- 1 tsp. corn flour
Method:
1. Place the fresh or frozen spinach in a microwave dish, add half a cup of water and cook it for 5 minutes.
2. Allow this to cool.
3. In a blender, mix the tomatoes, garlic, salt, turmeric and fresh chillies.
4. Heat the melted butter and oil and add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin gets brown, add in the blended tomato mixture and allow this to cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Transfer the cooked spinach to the blender and blend it well and add it to the tomato mixture.
6. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes and add in the corn flour.
7. Now add in the fresh cream ( or vegan substitute), stir well and cook for 5 more minutes.
8. Add a small knob of butter (or a vegan substitute like Vitalite)and serve it hot with some naan bread.
How do you serve your curry?