Lasooni Matar Palak

Lasooni Matar Palak is a restaurant-style vegan Indian spinach curry/dish. This curry has a strong garlic flavor and can be made in 30 minutes!

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Servings people

Calories 257.9kcal

Author Priya Lakshminarayan

Equipment

skillet

Ingredients

To blanch the spinach

16 oz spinach
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon salt
water as required
ice cubes as required

To prepare the masala base

10 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
5 green chilies
¼ cup almonds

To prepare the curry

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 onion
½ tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon chickpea flour
2 cups green peas
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup water
salt
2 teaspoon garam masala

For the second tadka

1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 dried red chilies
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Instructions

To blanch the spinach

Boil water in a pan (no salt to be added), add spinach leaves to the pan along with sugar, and boil it for 2 minutes.
Immediately transfer the boiled leaves to an ice bath (a bowl of ice water) and let it rest for another 2 - 3 minutes.
Remove half of the leaves carefully by squeezing out the excess water from it. Roughly chop them and keep it aside for now.
Transfer the remaining half into a blender just squeezing them a bit. Blitz this to a thick puree consistency. The water helps in making the puree. Add more if needed. Keep it aside for now.

To prepare the masala base

In a blender, add garlic, ginger, green chilies, and almonds.
Make a coarse paste by adding ¼ cup of water.

To prepare the curry

Heat oil in a pan and fry cumin seeds for 30-45 seconds. Then add the ground masala paste to the pan and fry it for another 2-3 minutes.
Next, add the chopped onions and saute till they turn translucent. Then add coriander powder and besan (chickpea flour), mix and cook it for 2 minutes.
Then add the green peas to the pan. Continue to saute for 2-3 minutes till the peas are cooked.
Then add the chopped spinach and mix. Cook this for another 5 minutes.
Then add turmeric powder, and blanched spinach puree along with water and salt, mix and continue to cook on high flame for another 4-5 minutes.
Lastly, add garam masala and give it a quick mix. Take it off the flame.

For th second tadka

Heat oil/ghee in a tadka pan and fry cumin seeds, dried red chilies, garlic cloves, and white sesame seeds for 45 seconds.
Then pour this tadka over the prepared curry.
You can serve this Dhaba style Palak recipe with any Indian flatbread and/or with steamed rice, quinoa, or even cauliflower rice.

Notes

When making the masala paste, you can swap almonds with cashews, walnuts, pecans, or peanuts. If you are allergic to nuts, skip adding them or use tahini instead.

Instead of adding crushed coriander seeds, you can also add coriander powder. Adding besan while cooking the curry will make the gravy thick and creamy plus help retain the water.

You can add cream (vegan or regular) as well. Do not skip the second tadka. That is what gives this Asian side dish an authentic smoky Dhaba feel.

Add boiled potatoes, chickpeas, mushrooms, tofu, or paneer to this curry to make it even more flavorful.

Nutrition