Potato and spinach curry
Every vegetarian cook needs a recipe for saag aloo - or potato and spinach curry - in their repertoire. Here's mine. It's simple, delicious and suitable for vegans.
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 medium onion peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped
- thumb-sized piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp chilli flakes or to taste
- 600 g potatoes diced (no need to peel)
- 500 ml vegetable stock*
- 200 g spinach shredded or use baby leaf spinach
- 2 tbsp garam masala
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the sunflower oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and fry over a medium heat for a minute until the cumin seeds are starting to colour. Add the onion, stir well and turn the heat to low. Cover and cook for ten minutes or until the onion is soft. Stir occasionally.
- When the onion is soft add the garlic and ginger. Stir and continue cooking for a minute. Then add the turmeric and chilli flakes.
- Next add the potatoes. Stir well to coat in the spicy onion mixture and add 350ml of the stock. Bring to the boil then cover and cook until the potatoes are soft. Stir often to avoid the potatoes sticking. Add a little more stock if it starts to look too dry*.
- When the potatoes are soft stir through the shredded spinach and cook until it's wilted.
- Add the garam masala, stir and heat through. Season with salt and pepper before serving with rice and/or flatbreads.
Notes
*The amount of stock that you need to cook the potatoes, and the time it takes, is going to vary depending on the size you cut your potatoes. Keep an eye on it and use a little extra stock if needed - but take care not to add too much early on or your curry will be too watery.