Spinach Soup | Palak Soup : Healthy Soup Recipes

I talked about eating healthy in my last post. Also, I am planning to cook soups often this winter. Soup fills your tummy & is very satisfying to sip a hot bowl of soup in the winter.

Some of you already know that we belong to "popeye family". So, I decided to kick off our soup journey with a spinach soup :p

Preparation Time: 
Cooking Time: 
Serves: 3-4
Recipe Source: Monsoonspice

Ingredients: 
Fresh Spinach : About 5-6 cups, loosely packed (stems separated)
Onion: 1/3 cup or 1/2 onion, sliced (I used red onion)
Bay leaf: 1 small or 1/2
Cinnamon: a small stick, about 1/2 inch
Cloves: 2-3 nos
Green chilli : 1 no, slit
Sugar: 1 tsp, a little more or less
Lemon juice: 2 tsp
Oil: 1 tsp
Water: About 2-2.5 cups
Salt: As needed

For the white sauce:
Butter: 1 tsp
AP flour/Maida: 2 tsp
Milk: 3/4th cup

For the garnish: 
Croutons (optional). I used some toasted whole wheat bread.

Method: 

• Heat oil in a pressure cooker. When oil is hot, add the sliced onions & saute till the onions turn translucent.
• Add the coarsely chopped spinach to the sauteed onions & cook till the spinach turns soft.
• Throw in the cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, green chilli, lemon juice, salt, and sugar to the sauteed spinach. Add the water & pressure cook the spinach for 1 whistle. Allow the steam to escape & let the spinach cool.
• Meantime, prepare the white sauce. Heat butter in a saucepan. Add the all purpose flour the butter & cook the flour on a low-medium heat until the flour turns light brown in color. Keep stirring the flour to ensure even cooking of the flour. When flour is cooked, add little milk at a time & whisk. Ensure there are no lumps. Cook the white sauce mixture on medium heat until the sauce thickens. Keep stirring to ensure even cooking. Keep the cooked white sauce aside.
• Discard the cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf & green chilli from the cooked spinach. Drain the water & keep the water aside. You will need the water later.
• Make a smooth puree out of the cooked spinach. Add the drained water while making the spinach puree.
• Pour the puree to a sauce pan, adjust the seasoning (if needed) & bring it to a boil. Add the white sauce little at a time & whisk well.
• Allow the soup to boil. Once the soup is hot & boiling, turn off the heat.
• Serve the soup hot with croutons or toasted garlic bread or with a salad.

Notes: 

• You could add a tsp of cream just before serving the soup. 
• You could even add a pinch of pepper powder before serving.

Palak Bajji/Spinach Curry/Palak Gojju: Tangy, Spicy & Garlicy

Want to enjoy a meal during sore throat, cold & cough? Prepare palak bajji & enjoy any boring meal. It has the perfect ingredients to give a high to your taste buds. Great news about this curry is, when refrigerated it stays up to a month.

Ingredients: (For around 2 cups of curry)

Spinach/Palak: 3 big bunches (Around 300 grams)

Garlic: 5 pods

Amtekayi: 3 nos (Since this is not available outside India, substitute with a medium grape sized tamarind).

Green chillies: 6 nos, more or less

Salt: According to taste

For tempering:

Oil: 1 tbsp, preferably coconut oil

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp

Garlic: 4 pods, minced or sliced

Curry leaves: 8-10nos

Method:

• Wash the spinach leaves along with the stem thoroughly in water. Chop the leaves & the tender stem coarsely. 
• Add less than 1/2 cup of water to the chopped spinach leaves. To this add garlic, amtekayi or tamarind, green chillies & salt. 
• Boil on medium-high heat for 10mins or pressure cook for 1 whistle.  Allow them to cool. 
• Once cooled, puree the mixture. 
• Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot, throw in mustard seeds followed by garlic & curry leaves. Saute till the leaves wilt & garlic turns golden brown.
• Add the spinach puree & adjust the seasoning. Boil on a medium-low heat for 10-15mins until the flavors blend in.
• Enjoy with ganji/porridge, rice or dosa.

Notes:

• If amtekayi is used: After boiling the amtekayi, squeeze out the juice & discard the hard portion.
• Ganji/Kanji/Porridge & this curry is a classic combination. 

Lasooni Dal Palak | Spinach and Lentils Seasoned with Garlic

Today, let's chat about Proteins. People who eat non-vegetarian food get their proteins from the animal sources like fish, meat & egg. The sources of protein for vegetarians are pulses or legumes & a few vegetables. That is the reason, I suppose, dal plays such an important role in Indian cooking. Any dish, which contains both legume and grain, is a complete source of protein. Our ancestors have done an excellent job by carefully selecting ingredients that go into making any dish in such a way that the nutritional value of the dish rises up always. Kudos to them !!!

I cook leafy vegetables at least 2-3 times a week. I try to explore simple, tasty & healthier curry recipes. I don’t like adding cardamoms, cinnamon & whole lot of spices in everyday food. I like it to be simple. Given a chance, I even avoid garlic & onions. As ayurveda suggests, garlic, onions & few other vegetables increase the “khrodha, kama & other harmful feelings inside the body”. Hence, it is advised to limit the usage of such vegetables to toddlers, young children & adolescent youth. I strongly believe in them & try to avoid them as much as possible. I suggest everybody cooking for young children to avoid such vegetables once a while to keep them calm & focused.

Now, don’t think I have gone nuts. I’m asking you to avoid them & myself preparing dal with loads of garlic. Isn’t it like “do what I say & don’t do what I do”? Note that garlic has umpteen health benefits too. One should not forget that. I feel, we need to know the chemistry of a vegetable to reap the benefits from them. For older people or middle aged people, it works like magic in reducing the bad cholesterol & safe guards the heart. Now that, we know both the advantages & disadvantages of garlic, we can decide when to use them & when not??Am I right?
Was I clear or did I confuse you guys more? Before I confuse you completely let me come back to..err…., Lasooni Dal Palak.

Lasooni Dal Palak is an amazing dish that can be served with either rice or rotis. I got two lasooni dal palak recipes while browsing. One was from One Hot Stove of Nupur ((I mostly followed her)& other from SaffronTrail. I used some ingredients & some nice points from both the recipes & created my own!!. Believe me, it tasted fantabulous. Ever since I prepared this, I have been crazy about it & these days whenever I buy palak, it is only lasooni dal palak at our home until my family complain about it ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup toor dal
• 1 cup masoor dal
• 3 pods garlic, sliced
• 1 pod garlic minced
• 1 medium sized onion sliced
• 1 tomato chopped finely or ½ cup tomato puree
• 2 cups finely chopped spinach/palak (I used frozen palak).
• 1 tsp red chilli powder/paprika
• 1 tbsp ghee/oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera/jeerige
• A pinch of turmeric
• 1 green chilli chopped
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• Salt according to taste

Method:

• Mix both the dals & wash them in running water two or three times.
• Add 1 cup water, chopped green chilli & turmeric to the washed dal. Pressure cook for 2-3 whistles.
• Allow the dal to cool. Meantime, fry the sliced garlic pods in ghee until golden brown. Remove them & drain them on absorbent paper.
• Prepare the tempering/tadka by using the same ghee (used for frying the garlic). When ghee is hot, add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds splutter add minced garlic & onions. Sauté till onion turns golden brown.
• Add the finely chopped spinach/palak, red chilli powder & cook the spinach for 3-4minutes. Follow spinach by finely chopped tomatoes & cook the tomatoes for 2-3minutes.
• Mash the cooked dal gently & pour it to the pan. Add ½ cup of water, salt & mix well. Boil the dal for 3-5minutes on a slow flame.
• Turn off the flame, add lemon juice. Mix well. Garnish it with the fried garlic & serve it hot with rice or rotis.

Palak Palya (Spinach Stir-fry)

Being a typical Kannadiga, I never used to cook or eat spinach. Both my mother and my mom-in-law rarely used spinach. Though we use lot of green leafy vegetables like menthya soppu(fenugreek leaves), dantu (amaranth), hongone (sessile joyweed), basale (a different type of spinach known as malabar spinach), sabsige (dil leaves), doddapatre (Coleus aromaticus ) ...this version of spinach was somehow missing from the list.

But, during my pregnancy, my doctor asked me to eat loads of palak(spinach) as it is rich in calcium & iron. I started cooking dal palak using the recipe from my colleagues. I learnt this particular dish from Tamkeen, one of my colleagues. This dish tastes so good that I have become a big fan of palak. We all needed a introduction to palak & now, the entire family is hooked to it :)


Ingredients:
1 bunch spinach (I used 250gms packet)
1 medium sized onion
2 dry red chillies
3-4 tbsp grated coconut
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
4-6 chopped curry leaves
a pinch of sugar
salt according to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp chopped cliantro





Method:

• Wash the spinach leaves, chop them finely.
• Chop the onions finely.
• Tear the dry red chilli into 2-3 pieces.
• Heat the oil in a broad pan. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, when mustard seeds splutter add urad dal, curry leaves. When urad dal turns golden brown add, torn red chillies.
• Add onion & sauté till onions turn golden brown.
• Add finely chopped spinach leaves & sauté well. Cook the spinach leaves for 5-7 minutes (or until soft) without adding any water (Spinach leaves out water, hence additional water is not required).
• When spinach is half cooked add salt, a pinch of sugar & mix well.
• Remove the pan from flame, add lemon juice. Mix well.
• Finally garnish it with coconut & cilantro.
• Serve this simple stir-fry as a side dish for rice, roti or any other Indian bread.

Dal palak (Spinach & Lentils Curry)

Our family has switched to greens (a lot of them) these days. I get very fresh Chinese spinach (phuay leng), sharp spinach, round spinach, Malabar spinach, red vege (a variation of Malabar spinach), amaranth leaves in the local supermarkets. This being an added advantage for me, I need not run around places to look for greens. I am happy to cook green leafy vegetables 4 days a week!!

I used Chinese Spinach to prepare dal palak (you can use the normal Indian palak too) & the taste was impressive. I’m going to prepare this often as everyone was very happy eating it.

Ingredients:
1 cup masoor dal (you could use normal toor dal too)
1 bunch spinach (I used 250gms packet)
½ tsp grated ginger
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
2 green chilli pods (chopped)
1 tsp dhania powder/coriander seeds powder
½ tsp chilli powder/paprika
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp milk cream (optional, I used nestle cream got from local market here)
1 tbsp oil
½ tsp cumin seeds
Salt according to taste
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped cilantro



Method:

• Wash the spinach well, drain out the water & pressure cook the leaves for 1 whistle (don’t add any water while cooking).
• Pressure cook the pigeon pea until soft (may be 2-3 whistles)
• Prepare a puree out of the cooked spinach without adding any water.
• Take a broad pan, add oil to it. When oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds crackle, add ginger, green chillies & finely chopped onion.
• Fry the onions till they turn golden brown. Add cooked lentils, spinach puree, salt, coriander seeds powder, chilli powder, garam masala & mix well.
• Allow the whole mixture to boil. Add cream & mix well.
• Turn off the flame, add lemon juice & garnish it with coriander leaves.
• Serve it hot with phulkas, naan or rice.
  

Thondekayi-kadale palya & Spinach Paratha

This was our dinner tonight. This thondekayi-kadale palya is mainly cooked in South Canara. Most famous one is, thondekayi-godambi palya (English: Ivy Gourd-cashewnuts stirfry).
To help readers know better.., here goes the translation of tondekayi in various languages.
English: Ivy Gourd, Telugu: Dondakaya, Tamil: Kovakkai, Gujarathi: Tindora, Hindi: Kundru/Tendli.
Kannada : Kadale, English: chick peas, Hindi: Kabul Channa
Palya in Kannada means stirfry.

Without wasting your time, here goes the recipe of it..


Ingredients:
15-16 thondekayi
1 cup channa (soaked for 3 hours in warm water)
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh/frozen)
2 red chillis
1 tablespoon dhania (coriander seeds)
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
1 teaspoon amchur powder
1 small piece of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds/menthya.
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 pinch asafoetida
4-6 curry leaves

For garneshing:
cliantro/coriander leaves

Method:

• Cut the thondekayi into medium sized pieces (One thondekayi can be cut into 3 pieces approximately).
• Pressure cook the channa & tondekayi seperately.
• Dry roast the red chilli, jeera, coriander seeds, cinnamon, fengreek seeds seperately.
  
• Add coconut to the roasted spices & make a paste out of it.
• Drain out the water from cooked thondekayi and channa
  
• In a pan, add oil. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves
• Add thondekayi,channa & salt to this.
  
• Now add the paste prepared & the amchur powder.
• Cook the whole for 2-4 mins & garnish with coriander leaves.
• Palya is ready to be served. It tastes great both with rice & with chapathi.
  

PS: If you want channa to absorb salt, then add salt while cooking channa. Also, amchur powder can be replaced with lemon juice.

Now is the recipe for spinach paratha. This is quite simple.

Blanch the spinach in hot water for 15 mins. Make a smooth paste of it. Mix this paste to the normal chapathi atta (Just like normal chapathi) & prepare parathas with it.

Here is the photo of both together waiting for me to consume ;))

I'm sending this plate to Aartee for the sapadu ready event.
Thanks for the nice event.