Wednesday 5 November 2008

Spinach and Lentil





This dish is very healthy and simple . This can be cooked on the days when you want a break from cooking because it doesn't take much of your time.

Ingredients
2 cups of chopped spinach / 5 blocks of frozen Tesco spinach.
1 cup of red lentils
1 medium sized onion roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
5 - 6 slit green chillies
1 large tomato cut into chunks
1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 red chillies
1 1/2 tsp salt

Method
Add spinach (frozen ones can also be added directly from freezer , need not be defrosted), lentils, garlic, cumin seeds, green chillies, onion and tomato in a pressure cooker. Cook for 10 mins. Now this needs tempering, heat oil and add mustard seeds. After it stops spluttering, add red chillies, saute it for 1 min . Add this tempering and salt and cook it for 2 -3 mins . Serve this with rotis, naan , pitta bread or hot rice.

Money saving tip
I prefer frozen spinach as this available throughout the year and I saw this was cheaper than the fresh ones. I buy fresh ones only if there is an offer cheaper than frozen ones. Actually frozen vegetables contain more nutrients than the fresh ones as these are frozen when there are very fresh. But with beans, dry beans also contains the same nutrients as the frozen one. So soaking beans and cooking them also gives the same nutrients. Because drying process just dehydrates the seeds but doesn't remove its nutrients instead these nutrients become concentrated .


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