It was a particularly good weekend for spinach, which is tied with orange squashes for my favorite good-for-you vegetable. Last night I decided to make an Indian vegetarian dinner, and I tried another Bittman recipe, this time for saag paneer, spinach with cheese. Bittman recommends using tofu in place of the cheese, and since I had some on hand, I followed his advice. I bought some whole milk yogurt at the Indian grocery store that was amazingly good, and this was one of the principal ingredients, along with spices and half-and-half. Really, really good. I also made channa masala, a tomato-chickpea curry, from this Indian-themed food website. I went on a wild goose chase for the channa masala spice, finding it not at the Trinidadian Indian grocery store but at another Indian grocery store that also had the aforementioned succulent yogurt.
Today I made Persian Spinach and Yogurt Dip, from this month's issue of Cooking Light, which has a motherlode of good recipes this month (I have already made the date bars, Lyonnais potatoes, and Chicago-style steak with mushroom sauce, all of which were excellent). Ali Baba, a Middle Eastern/Persian restaurant in Orlando, has a similar spinach dip that I like very much, so I was excited when this recipe yielded similar results.
I need to figure out how to archive recipes by category on Blogger, anybody out there know how?
Persian Spinach and Yogurt Dip
1 10 ounce package fresh spinach, chopped
2 tsp. butter
1/3 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1 minced garlic clove
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup plain, fat-free organic yogurt (I went with the full-fat natural yogurt version)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Cook chopped spinach for one minute, then drain well, squeezing out excess water. In a skillet, melt butter, saute onions and garlic until translucent. Remove from heat, stir in spinach and salt, and cool.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix spinach mixture with yogurt, pepper and cinnamon. Let stand at least 30 minutes before serving, chill afterward. Serve with pita bread, carrots, etc.
5 comments:
you can just list down the names and link it to every permalink (the particular page for the particular entry) yourself.
These last two posts all look delicious! I made the chicken with carmelized onions and pistachios, again, and took your advice on adding more broth as the rice cooked. I don't mind telling you ~ it was stunning! Delicious, perfect, and it tasted devine, with that saffron and orange-y taste combination. Everyone at my book club loved it (and the book) so it was a huge success. I had a hard time even finding saffron threads when I first went to make it but this time I wanted some naan also and I tracked down an Afghan Market in Hayward, right by one of the schools I work at. They had *shelled* pistachios by the pound, and fresh, warm naan (2 bucks for a "loaf"! a "flat"? Anyway....), and the most mouth watering spices I've ever seen. Mountains of them! I will be visiting often, as I finally ordered the Bittman book you recommended through Amazon. My husband loves you, by the way!
Thanks for visiting my blog. This spinach dip sure looks like a good recipe.
Thanks for visiting my blog. This spinach dip sure looks like a good recipe.
Thanks for the tip, Rokh... Mia, I'm glad you made the chicken again, and that it was a success! Wish I could be in the book club and try out your version of it...
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