Feather's Delicious Curried Spinach and Potato Dish

Originally posted here by Feather. I added some tofu and it worked out OK.

Oh my little droogies I have been wanting to contribute to the slate of cooking before they get (too) old, so I offer up this little gem from the depths of my cooking dungeons:

Potato and Spinach Curry with Chickpeas

Prep time: 30-45 minutes. Total cost for all ingredients: ~US$10, most of which was the new jar of paste and the mustard seeds. Serves 8 regular sized people (give or take), or 4-6 internet nerds.

Ingredients

Note that I have already peeled the potatoes and diced one!

• 1 Medium Onion
• 6-8 cloves garlic¹
• 12-14 oz of fresh spinach (you can find this in a bag at your grocery store, usually, or with the other veggies where you can bag it yourself).
• 2 large potatoes, peeled, diced, and rinsed.
• 1 cup cooked garbanzo beans (or 1 14-16oz can if you prefer), rinsed & drained
• 2 cups Basmati rice
• 2 tbsp Curry Paste (to your desired spicey-ness; I prefer very hot, but had to cook this dish for people that can't take it, so you'll see "Mild" here instead)
• 1 tbsp black mustard seeds
• 2-3 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
• 2 cups of water
• A few small fresh limes²
• 1 block tofu (optional)

1: If you hate garlic, reduce this number; the original recipe I was given calls for 2 cloves. I, however, could eat garlic much as I would an apple if it didn't sting so badly, so I chose to use a little more. Save 2 of the cloves for cooking the tofu if you are going that route.

2: If you aren't a big fan of the salty-sweet flavor of lime, use just one; the idea is to give it a "hint" of the flavor.

Method

Roughly chop the onion and crush the garlic.

Place a large, deep frying pan on medium heat and let it warm up.

Wilt the spinach in another pan over low-medium heat. Do not cook the spinach, just wilt it. It looks like this when you stick it by handfuls into a pan:

You'll want to sprinkle teaspoonfuls of water into the pan between batches maybe, depending on your cookware. Don't use oils or anything else.

The spinach should be a rich green and just wilted but not shrivelled, i.e. not cooked.

Remove the pan of spinach from heat and set aside.

Next, pour the vegetable oil into the large frying pan and let it heat for about half a minute or so. Fry the crushed garlic and onion for 5 minutes

Now stir in the paste and mustard seeds and fry for 1-2 minutes.

I have a weakness here. Sometimes I'll take a spoonful of this mixture and eat it. Because it's crack, I tell you. Anyway, onward into our cooking journey!

Cook the Basmati rice as usual, and start now (you have to boil the water then stir in the rice, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes).

Dump the diced potatoes into the frying pan and pour the water (both cups) in. Then stir so everything's nicely coated and covered. The water should just top the potatoes.

Bring to the boil and let cook 20-25, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are almost tender (don't cook until they're done). You can test this by sticking a fork into one of the pieces of potato; if it slides very easily into the piece or the piece falls apart you've overcooked it.

At about the 20 or 25 minute mark most of the potatoes should be at least halfway visible:

Now we stir in the spinach and then the garbanzo beans:

Cook this for about 5-7 minutes, stirring a few times. While this is happening, you should be able to remove the rice from the simmer and let it begin to cool slightly. Also, slice your lime(s) in half.

If you'd like to add tofu, you can cube it now and sautee it in a tbsp of oil and 2 crushed cloves of garlic. Once the tofu is lightly browned, add it to the rest of the stuff.

The final step before serving is to squeeze the lime juice in and then stir it.

The final dish, served over rice, looks something like this:

Prep time: 30-45 minutes. Total cost for all ingredients: ~US$10, most of which was the new jar of paste and the mustard seeds. Serves 8 regular sized people (give or take), or 4-6 internet nerds.

It's also worthy to note that cooking this sort of thing leaves you with really messy dishes. Soak everything that touched the curry paste as soon as you're able because otherwise you'll have stained dishes.