I know a lot of people think of warming wintry comfort food as pot pies, mashed potatoes, bowls of dumpling soup. But you know what else will warm you right up on a cold winter day? Indian food. Better yet, slow-cooked Indian food. That’ll warm you and your house up!
When I was in undergrad at UC Davis, I went to an Indian restaurant right off campus for a lunch buffet. I fell in love with chicken saag there – a super spicy dish with a spinach sauce that kept me going back to that buffet. Way too much. Like … basically every week.
Of course, girl brain could totally justify it because that dish was probably the only spinach-based anything I actually enjoyed back then.
Doesn’t matter that it was inherently accompanied by large quantites of naan, cardamom rice pudding, and creamy hot chai.
Mmmmm the flavors of college to me!
I have tried making saag many times since then, but I wanted to replicate flavor of Raja’s, which my frequent visits ensured I would never forget. While the saag recipes I tried were good, they had their own flavors. Not what I wanted.
I finally found a great recipe in The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester. I had to make it stronger and spicier to replicate my college favorite, but here it is!
adapted from The Vegan Slow Cooker
serves 4
1/2 lb baby spinach
2 C artichoke hearts, quartered
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 large onion, in wedges
4 cloves garlic
1 T fresh ginger, minced or grated
1 t brown mustard seeds
1 t cumin seeds
2 t garam masala (this is where most of the spice comes from, so adjust according to your spice tolerance!)
3 C water
Throw everything in slow cooker and set on low for about 6 hours. Don’t forget to thank your slow cooker for being a beautiful invention as you fling stuff in there and wait for it to cook you a meal while you go on with your day.
I recommend putting the spinach on the bottom to make sure it cooks down to a sauce-like consistency. Take out half of the mixture and puree (I try to puree most of the spinach because that’s just the consistency I prefer).
Serve over rice.
And then be amazed by the nutrition facts on this recipe. No added fat or salt and almost twenty grams each of fiber and protein in one serving. Soooo happy 🙂
Nutrition facts per serving:Calories: 347; Calories from Fat: 46; Total Fat: 5.1g; Saturated Fat: 0.6g; Sodium: 142mg; Total Carbohydrates: 61.1g; Dietary Fiber: 19.5g; Sugars: 10.7g; Protein: 19.5g
Leave a Reply