Palak chole - Punjabi spinach with chickpeas

Cooking time: 20 min. / 35 min.Difficulty: easy

It was impossible to get through all the narrow streets of night Amritsar in Indian state Punjab and not to come back with such a filled tummy that it was just ready to explode. At every corner there was a vendor cooking and serving on the street the best delicacies, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. And they all smelled so good. Palak chole, spinach with chickpeas represents the real Indian scent for me. Garam masala, cinnamon, cardamon .... so hard to resist and why actually :)

Process

Soak chickpeas overnight and cook till soft. Usually it lasts around 30 minutes.

Cook spinach leaves in salt boiling water 5 minutes together with cinnamon, both cardamons and cloves. Water should reach about 1/3 of spinach leaves volume.

Take spinach from the water and blend in a blender.

Keep the water together with the spices aside for later use.

Heat oil in a pan on a high heat, add cumin seeds, onion, garlic and chilies and stir fry 1 minute.

Then add fenugreek leaves and shortly after add tomato and ginger. In one more minute add turmeric, chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala and cumin powder.

In one more minute add spinach with cooked chickpeas. Stir constantly. Add water which you used for cooking the spinach (without the spices) to reach required consistency. Warm the mix up and salt to taste.

If you wish, tender it by cream or yoghurt.

Serve with rice or chapati.

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