Dish of the Week: Punjabi Kadhi with Spinach

Punjabi kadhi is one of my all time favourite  comfort foods! Its great for lunch or dinner. I learned to make this dish from my aunt, who is like a second mother to me and my grandmother when I was living in Kingston. I’ve added my own twist to the recipe with some of the spices and I use spinach as an alternative to deep fried pakoras.  Heart disease is very prevalent in the South Asian community and it hit home to me last year when my husband had to undergo a very unexpected quadruple bypass. This is one of the reasons why I keep my family away from fried foods as much as possible and when I do cook foods at high heat, I only use avocado oil. It has the highest smoke point of any plant oil. It fights inflammatory factors associated with heart disease. I will be sharing my very personal reasons for healthy cooking in a future post.

My kids have gotten use to eating lots of veggies since they were toddlers and they just love this dish. I always make a big batch to last me two days. Its a very quick and easy recipe which is great for a busy weeknight meal when my house is like a revolving door restaurant and people need to eat at different times. Its a great self serve meal made in two dutch oven pots, one pot for the kadhi and one for the basmati rice. I have a rice cooker, but I still prefer to make my rice stove top. I keep chickpea flour in my pantry and frozen spinach stalked in my freezer for the days where I’m stumped on what to cook or when I need to make something very quickly.

Prep Time : 15 minutes    Cook Time: 45 minutes

Serves : 6

  

Ingredients

  • 5 heaping tablespoons besan flour (chickpea flour, available at most grocery stores)
  • 3 cups yogurt
  • 8 cups of water
  •  frozen spinach chopped(255g) or freshly chopped 2 cups (I like my kadhi to be hearty, so I often double the spinach quantity)
  • 1 medium onion chopped finely
  • 1 tablespoon chopped or grated ginger
  • 3 cloves chopped garlic
  • 2 teaspoons Pink Himalayan Salt (lessen or add depending on your taste)
  • 3-4 tablespoons Avocado Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Tumeric powder
  • 1 tablespoon Kasoori Methi
  • 1 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder or freshly chopped thai chillies or japanenos *Spice is optional, this is my recipe, so I ALWAYS add spice!!:)

Directions

  1. In a large bowl add yogurt and water. Whisk together and then add besan flour and whisk again.
  2. Add tumeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and kasoori methi, whisk and put aside.
  3. In a large pot or dutch oven heat avocado oil on high.
  4. Add onions, garlic, ginger, green chillies (optional) fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and sauté.
  5. When onions appear to be translucent, add salt spinach and sauté for 5 minutes.
  6. Once spinach has mixed well with the onion mixture add besan flour and yogurt mixture and heat on high.
  7. Stir every so often until kadhi starts to bubble and boil. Once you see a good boil, reduce heat and simmer on low for half hour. * See the consistency of the kadhi, if you would like it thinner, add one cup of boiling water.
  8. Ready to serve and enjoy with steamed basmati rice or quinoa!