Lasooni Palak is an easy-to-make simple spinach base curry with the dominating flavour of garlic. It is an ideal recipe for lunch or dinner, and we can have it with bread, roti, or even rice.
Personally speaking, I love the aroma and taste that garlic provides in the recipe. I do not care much if it smells not too good after. I enjoy dishes with an overpowering garlic flavour – both Indian and Western dishes like garlic bhindi, garlic mushroom, garlic bread (the most favoured one), garlic curry, Lahsun Chatkara, etc.
Similarly, this spinach base recipe is given a twist of garlicky flavour, making it more interesting. Again, it makes it easier to get kids to eat this healthy leafy green vegetable.
Steps To Make Lasooni Palak
The ingredients list may seem longer but preparing the dish is easy and less fussy. Just follow the steps to know how to make it.
First of all, heat the oil in a cooking pan. Add cumin seeds, green chilli & ginger-garlic paste. Saute until aromatic. Then add chopped onion & saute again until fragrant. The onion will get softer and a bit translucent at this step.
Now add the powdered spices except for garam masala and mix. Also, add tomato too. Then add green chilli paste, gram flour, boiled spinach & mix. We need to cook them for 5-7 minutes or until tender.
After that, add spinach puree, curd, garam masala & mix. Again cook for 5-7 minutes or until tender. Lastly, add curd and mix everything well.
#For Tempering#
Heat oil in a tempering pan. Add chopped garlic & dry red chilli to the tadka or tempering pot. Heat it. Then add curry leaves after heating. Pour these into the gravy and stir it one last time. Lasooni Palak is ready. See how easy it is.
Lasooni Palak Without Onions & Tomatoes
You can also make this recipe without using onions and tomatoes. This version can be called an instant version of this recipe because you are not going to take time chopping these ingredients. Not only that, there is no need to make spinach puree as well.
This makes it easier to make this recipe and can be prepared when you are tight on time. The spinach can be roughly chopped and then used in this recipe. However, you can blend them into a puree if you prefer.
There is also a use of roasted peanuts powder in this version. You just need to coarsely grind the peanuts after roasting and peeling off their skin.
Fill half of a kadhai with water and heat it. Add the spinach to the water after thoroughly washing it. Blanch them and remove them from the water. Transfer the spinach to an ice-chilled water bowl to stop it from cooking more and to ensure that its colour remains.
Heat oil in a kadhai and saute cumin seeds till they sputter. Then add chopped (or crushed) garlic and green chillies, sauteeing them for two minutes. After that, add turmeric powder, besan and peanuts powder and roast all ingredients on medium flame until besan turns aromatic. All this is to be done on medium flame.
Once the aroma changes then add all the spices, except salt and mix. Finally, roughly chop the blanched spinach and add it to the kadhai along with salt. Mix everything and close the kadhai with a lid simmering it for 3-4 minutes. Lasooni palak is ready.
Tips:
- You can add more whole spices to get more aroma and flavours.
- Curd is replaceable with fresh cream if you do not want the tanginess.
- The thickness of the gravy is adjustable.
- Select the spinach whose stem part is tender and thin. Otherwise, it can take a bit more time to blanch and puree.
- You can adjust the measure of onion and tomatoes to your liking.
- Don’t add besan or gram flour if you do not want it too thick.
- You can also opt for adding cream to make the gravy thicker and rich in texture. However, then you will need to adjust the spiciness.
- The spiciness is more recommended for this recipe.
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