This is a Maharashtrian recipe (known as Palak patal bhaji). It is made with peanuts, chana dal, tamarind, jaggery, and chick-pea flour.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups chopped spinach
- 2 tbsp chana dal
- 2 tbsp raw peanuts
- 2 tbsp tamarind paste
- 2-3 tbsp besan (chick pea flour)
- 4-5 dried red chili
- 5-6 garlic cloves
- Oil
- Jaggery as per your taste
- Salt
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp hing
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- Red chili powder if needed
Method:
- Soak chana dal, raw peanuts in water for one hour
- If you are using dry tamarind, soak it in warm water for 15 minutes and then squeeze with hands for the pulp. Or you can use store bought tamarind pulp
- Take a cooking pot, add oil to it, and heat it
- Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them crackle
- Add hing powder
- Add soaked and drained chana dal+peanuts, mix well
- Then add garlic pieces and pieces of dried red chili
- Mix well and let them cook for 1 minute
- Add tamarind pulp, turmeric powder and red chili powder to it, mix well
- Cover it and cook until rawness of tamarind pulp goes away
- Add chopped spinach, mix and cover with lid
- Cook it on low flame for 4-5 minutes until spinach becomes soft
- Add jaggery and salt and mix well (jaggery can be optional, but the taste changes significantly by adding jaggery or sugar)
- Take besan in a bowl, add ¼ cup water and make a smooth paste (remove all the lumps)
- Add besan paste to the curry, mix and add 1 cup or more water to get desired consistency
- Cover and cook on low flame until rawness of besan goes away and the curry becomes thick
- Keep stirring in between to avoid burning
- Adjust the salt
- Once oil starts appearing on the surface of curry, turn off the stove
- Serve hot with basmati rice or roti.
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