Lasooni palak | garlic & spinach curry
Lasooni palak makes for a perfect vegetarian meal. This recipe just requires a fresh bunch of spinach to make a simply curry base along with some tomatoes & onions. At the end, a tadka of ghee, fried garlic and chillies is added for a delicious flavour.
I have also shared a few tips below which help keep the delicious green colour from the spinach leaves. There are variations to this dish as well, some people completely blend the spinach for a uniform texture, some just chop the spinach and mix with the tomato masala. I did both! I chopped half of the wilted spinach and blended the other half. This gives a lovely texture to the final curry.
This recipe also uses besan (gram flour) to give the final curry a creamy texture. Besan also helps reduce any leftover wateriness from the wilted spinach leaves and also gives a delicious nutty flavour to the final dish. If you don't have besan, you can leave it out. I would also recommend using a powerful blender for this recipe - we want to blend the wilted spinach leaves with as little water as possible to prevent the final curry from becoming watery.
This recipe is
- A great source of iron
- Ready in 30 - 40 minutes
- Delicious to have the chapatis or naan
- Can be made vegan be replacing ghee with vegetable oil
Serves 4
400g spinach, washed
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, finely diced
1 green chilli
Thumb size piece ginger, peeled
1/2 tbsp besan (gram / chickpea flour)
Salt to taste
Water, as required
Oil, as required
1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
For the tadka
1/2 tbsp ghee (or vegetable oil if vegan)
2 dried kashmiri red chillies, broken into pieces
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Cook time - 30 - 40 minutes
- First, take a large bowl and fill this with cold water and ice cubes, you will add the wilted spinach to this later. Set this aside whilst you wilt the spinach.
- Take a large pan on medium heat and wilt the spinach ~2 cups water. I tend not to use more water than necessary as I find that spinach already has a high moisture content as is. Do not wilt the spinach more than necessary, this will help keep the green colour.
- Once the spinach has wilted, drain and then place in the ice cold water. This will also help keep the green colour.
- Leave the spinach to sit in the water for 5 minutes. Add half of the wilted spinach to a blender along with the ginger and green chilli. Blend to a fine puree and set aside.
- With the remaining spinach, place on a chopping board and roughly chop them. Also set this aside.
- To make the masala base, take a large frying pan or kadai and heat a little vegetable oil. Add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle.
- Add the chopped onion, and saute until translucent.
- Next, add the besan and mix well. Saute on a low flame for a few minutes until the besan starts releasing a lovely nutty aroma.
- Next, add the tomatoes and increase the flame to a medium. Saute until the tomatoes become completely soft and you see fat releasing from the sides of the mixture.
- Add the remaining spices and mix well.
- Pour in the blended spinach and add the chopped spinach leaves. Careful it may splutter!
- Cook on a medium flame for 5-7 minutes. You can adjust the consistency at this stage with a little water. The besan will absorb some water, so feel free to adjust according to your preferences. Also season with salt to taste at this stage.
- Cover with a lid and leave the heat on low whilst you prepare the tadka.
- In a tadka or small frying pan, heat the ghee. Once the ghee is hot, add the thinly sliced garlic. Fry until the garlic begins to turn golden. Add the broken chillies and let them puff up and soften. The garlic should be completely golden brown by then.
- Pour this tadka straight into the spinach curry and mix well. Check for seasoning again and then enjoy with fresh chapatis!
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