Palak Matar Paneer

As a kid my nephew was big fan of 'Johny Bravo' the spinach eating, muscle flexing animation character. But however we would try to inspire him to eat spinach by giving him examples of his hero, he would never touch it. I guess its the same still.

When I first wanted to cook something with Spinach..i did not want the regular potato-spinach combination. So I made something which holds a proud place in my recipe book now..because not only did it turn out to be likable ..its simple and absolutely no efforts and original..something which would allow me to lazy once in a while and still churn up meal which is healthy. I recommended this dish to one of my collegues when she was on a lookout for vegetarian low fat, low cholesterol dish. She came back with a good feedback.

Ingredients:

2 bunches of Spinach (palak)(300-400gms)

A cup of Peas (matar)

200 gms Paneer ( cottage cheese) (optional - for the low cal/fat version avoid this)

5-6 green Chillies

7-8 Garlic flakes

3 medium Tomatoes

1 medium Onion

water to cook

Salt to taste

Clean the spinach thouroughly and cut it into a 2-4 inches pieces.Slit the green chillies. Cube the tomatoes and the onions into large chunks and crush the garlic. Pressure cook the spinach, green chillies, tomatoes, garlic, onions with salt and the 3/4 cup of water.Do not put the whistle. The quantity of salt added would also be less than usual since spinach has its own natural salt. Remove the spinach from flame after 15-20 mins.

Boil the peas also separately. I usually microwave the peas at high for 10 mins in water. The quantity of water is just enough to cover the peas. You may optionally pressure cook it. After cooking the peas should not have much water left off.

Use a handblender to blend the spinach and the cooked vegetables to a paste consistency.Add the cooked peas. Cube the paneer and add them also. Serve while hot with hot roti's.

This would be my entry for 'Eat Healthy - Fibre Rich'

Note: One can use diced potatoes instead of paneer. Just boil it along with peas.

Errata: My nephew read this post and duly informed me that it was not 'Johny Bravo' but 'Popeye' who was the spinach eater. Also for records he is a fan of both the animation characters. :)