This stir fry comes from one of my favourite cooking books by Meera Sodha. Her easy Indian recipes keeps me coming back time and time again.
This is a simple dish with only three core ingredients: spinach, chickpeas and tomatoes. A match made in heaven. But while they are the heroes, we also use a bunch of spices to make this a well-balanced dish. But don’t worry, this is still a quick weekday meal for us busy people!
As I said, this dish is featured in Meera Sodha’s Fresh India cooking book. I’ve only adapted it very slightly to better understand the order of cooking and to use some kitchen staples. I am also adding the serving of wild rice to the dish which makes it a filling meal. Note that the link to the cooking book is not a referral link; I don’t make any money from it, I am only sharing my personal experience and want to signpost to the original author.
Spinach and chickpea stir fry
5 minutes preparation + 30 minutes cooking — serves 2 to 3
Ingredients
- 160 grams wild rice (or more if you’re cooking for 3 people)
- 2 onions
- 500grams fresh (baby) spinach
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 2cm ginger
- 0.5 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 can of plum tomatoes
- 2 cans chickpeas
- 1.5 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 0.5 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Oil
Preparation
- Cut the onions.
- Peel and grate the ginger.
- Press the garlic.
Preparing the rice and stir fry
- Boil a liter of water in a kettle.
- Wash the rice and cook for c. 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- While the rice is cooking, heat some oil in a pan and once hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin and onion.
- Fry the onions for c. 8 minutes on a medium heat until they soften and start to brown.
- Add the garlic and ginger and fry for another two minutes.
- Add the full can of plum tomatoes and crush the tomatoes.
- Fill the empty can with a third of water and add it to the pan. Cook for c. 10 minutes to evaporate most of the liquid.
- Drain and wash the chickpeas.
- Add the chickpeas to the pan and mix with the tomato mix. Heat through for a minute.
- Mix in the coriander, chili powder, turmeric and salt.
Bringing it all together
- Wash the spinach and slowly add it to the tomato-chickpea mix. Do this in a few stages to as the spinach will wilt and it will be easier to add in more spinach.
- Once you have added all the spinach, heat it all through for another 5 minutes.
- Serve the wild rice with the spinach and chickpea stir fry.
Enjoy your meal!
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Leave a comment below if you made this recipe, and let me know what you think. Tips and feedback to improve the recipe are always welcome too!