Aloo Palak (Indian spinach with potatoes)

With heavy snow and an insanely freezing cold weather here in Beijing, I gave up on going out of my warm room yesterday. Fortunately for me, I had some spinach left in my fridge and so, I decided to cook one of my favorite vegetarian Indian food: Indian potatoes with spinach!
Aloo palak is a very popular Indian vegetarian recipe. There are many variations as to how to make this Indian spinach recipe (or Indian potato recipe). In some aloo palak recipes, the palak (spinach) is boiled first and in others it is directly fried. In my personal aloo palak recipe, I blanch my spinach instead of boiling it for a long time. According to this article, it is best to boil spinach and also, not to boil it for a period of time greater than 4 minutes. Well, now I understand why my mom always told me to blanch my spinach first!

Aloo palak recipe

Ingredients:
2 bunches spinach (palak), thoroughly washed
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into medium cubes
1-2 green chilies, chopped
1 Onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
lemon juice (optional)

Steps:
1.Boil the potatoes with salt and turmeric until done. Keep (You can also fry the potatoes, instead of boiling).
2.Blanch the spinach in boiling water. Roughly chop the spinach. Keep.
3.In the meantime, put oil in pan and when hot enough, add the onions and fry them until translucent.
4.Add garlic, ginger, green chillies and fry for 1 minute.
5.Add the spinach and fry for 1 minute or less.
6.Remove from pan and when cool enough, blend to a fine puree.
7.Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When they start to pop, add the spinach-onion paste. Let simmer for a while.
8.Add the cooked potatoes, garam masala, turmeric powder and cumin powder. Add water if needed.
9.Cook for another 5 minutes.
10.Mix in some lemon juice, if desired.Done!

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