Fight your flu this fall with this warm, filling and nutritious meal. It’s much easier than it looks and the fragrant flavour perfectly offsets the soft texture. At my place, it often serves as a throw-together-last-minute dinner. In fact, although spinach is recommended in this recipe, you can use pretty much any green vegetable. I’ve substituted before with swiss chard, kale even bok choy and it’s always turned out delicious. The trick is that you wilt the leaves before you add them to the curry which removes their bitter edge. Similarly, you can add chickpeas or crispy firm tofu for added protein and texture.

Time 25-30 mins                Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
1 Tbs of oil
1 Tbs of cumin seeds
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of fresh ginger
1 tsp of lemon juice
4/5 large potatoes
4/5 large handfuls of fresh spinach
6-10 Mushrooms (optional)
pine nuts (for decoration)

Directions

1. Wash, chop and steam the potatoes for roughly 15 minutes until they’re just cooked. A fork should pierce through the potato easily but don’t over cook them as you want them to retain their shape.

2. Mix the ginger, finely sliced garlic and lemon juice together in a separate bowl. Put aside.

3. Wash the spinach thoroughly then cook in a hot skillet until the leaves begin to wilt (become soft and turn a darker green). Be careful not to overcook them, they’ll be put over the heat again in a minute. Rise in cool water as this helps the leaves retain their flavour.  Toss into a blender and blitz until the spinach is quite fine, again don’t over do it, you don’t want a liquid curry.

4. Next, finely dice the onion and cook in oil over a medium-hot heat for a minute. Add the cumin for a further minute, then the ginger mixture and mushrooms (optional) for a further 2 minutes.

5. Cook through until the mixture is well combined. Now add the spinach from the blender. Cook for five minutes before adding the spuds (potatoes). You intention is to mix and warm the saag, so it’s ready to serve when heated through.

Best served with homemade naan and basmati rice.