Indian spinach & mushroom dish. Recipe?

[Amandoh]

Hi there,

I recently had a delicious spinach and mushroom dish in an Indian restaurant. I don't know what it was called as I asked if they had a vegetable side dish without potato and the waiter suggested this.

Anyway... I tried to recreate it myself this evening. I used frozen chopped spinach, chopped mushrooms, a little chopped onion, lots of garlic and some garam masala powder. It was awful and I couldn't eat it. The one I had in the restaurant was quite oily but as I'm dieting I want to avoid to using anything calorific. Is this where I went wrong? Is there any way of making this dish but keeping it low fat?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

You are on the right tracks - but garam masal on it's own would not give the flavours needed. Try sauteing the onions and garlic in a little oil (you don't need much - not necessary at all) then adding cumin and corinader seeds, paprika, and some garam masala as well a a small amount of chilli flakes/powder, before adding the mushrooms and finally the spinach leaves. Be quite generous with the salt and pepper. Salt does help and as long as you don't eat too much salt the rest of the day it's fine.
Hope that helps!

Hi Shrooms,

Thank you for your reply. I shall have another attempt at making it later in the week using your suggestions and let you know how I get on. My disaster was cooked in the oven and it was very dry. I'm going to make the next one on the hob. Hopefully that will improve things too.

Thanks again!

shrooms is halfway there. I have a saag recipe that I use with lots of things which we love.

500g of spinach leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
tbsp of oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves chopped
7oz tin toms
2cm piece of ginger, grated
400g mushrooms

blanch the spinach leaves in boiling water for 2 mins, then refresh in cold water.

dry roast the cumin until aromatic (doesnt take very long at all, be careful not to overdo it - try one afterwards, it shouldn't be bitter)

heat the oil (you can use less if you want) and fry the onion, garlic, cumin and coriander and fenugreek until brown cook them slowly for a good while.

stir in the tomato, ginger, and garamasala and bring to the boil. Fry off the mushrooms seperately - actually if you want to be healthy, stick them in the microwave or the oven so you don't have to use oil. Then fold them into the gravy, and add salt to taste.

I normally make up large amount of the gravy then add chicken, paneer, potato, mushrooms or whatever to it seperately and freeze into meals.

btw the heat in saag comes from the ginger not chillis, it should be warm and spiced not overpowering. but you can always add dried chillis when you add the salt if you want it spicier.

Hello again,

Thank you to you all for your help. I didn't expect so many or such fast responses!

Like I said, I'm going to have another attempt this week so I'll let you know how I get on.

Many thanks,

Amanda

dh does a nice spinach and prawn one
i'll get the details if you are interested!