Spinach and apple bajji | Palak and apple gojju | Spinach and Apple Chutney

My son is in “chutney loving phase” now. Gone are his love for idli, dosa, and other South Indian dishes. He loves eating chutney now. He wants chutney three times a day and seven days a week. He wants to eat the chutney with hot rice. I challenge myself to make healthier chutney for him every other day. So, you can expect a lot of chutney recipes here J

This is one chutney I prepared couple of weeks ago and since then I have made it thrice already. It is delicious, healthy and easy to make. It takes about 20 mins to make this chutney.

Preparation Time: 5 mins

Cooking Time: 15 mins

Serves:3-4

Ingredients:

Red apple: 1 large, refer notes

Spinach: 2 cups, tightly packed

Green bell pepper: ¼ cup, cubed

Green chili: 2-3 nos, according to taste

Turmeric: a big pinch

Tamarind: 1 small marble sized

Salt: As needed

Asafoetida: a big pinch

Brown sugar or jaggery: 1 tsp

Coconut: ¼ cup, fresh or frozen

Water: As needed

For tempering:

Coconut oil: 1 tsp

Mustard seeds: ¾ tsp

Curry leaves: 3-4 nos, torn

Method:

• Wash, core and cube the red apples.
• Wash the spinach thoroughly and roughly chop them. Slit the green chilies.
• Add the spinach, cubed bell peppers, slit green chilies, turmeric and cubed red apples to a sauce pan. Add about a cup of water to it.
• Boil the vegetables for 3-4 mins.  Add the tamarind, salt, jaggery and asafoetida to the sauce pan and boil until the vegetables are soft and tender.
• Allow the mixture to cool. If you are using frozen coconut, add the frozen coconut to the vegetable mix and allow to cool.
• Once the mixture comes to room temperature, make a coarse paste of all the ingredients. Do not add too much water. You can add the water that is used for cooking the spinach and apple. Use water wisely.
• Scoop out the paste to a bowl and prepare the tempering.
• Heat oil in a small wok. When oil is hot, throw in the mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackle, throw in the curry leaves and turn off the heat.
• Add the tempering to the chutney.
• Mix well and serve it hot with rice or chapathi. 

Notes:

• I use red delicious apple or Fuji apple (sweeter apple) for preparing this chutney.  If you are using a sour variety of apple, make sure to use less tamarind and more jaggery.
• Coconut oil tempering is perfect for this chutney, however you are free to use an oil of your choice.