Great over rice, as a dip with pita chips, or on it’s own, saag won’t win any beauty contests, but it’s yummy!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 6 cloves of minced garlic (could be more…)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root (really much better if fresh, rather than in the jar)
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• half teaspoon tumeric
• quarter to half teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on how girly your wife is)
• 1 pound of chopped spinach (frozen is fine, just thaw and squeeze first)
• 1 cup water (if unavailable use vodka… but then you don’t need the other ingredients)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup greek yogurt (we use the 2%, though I don’t know that it’d make any difference)
• half cup cream
• 1 can garbanzo beans (use chickpeas instead if you feel silly saying the word “garbanzo”)

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a biggish pot over medium heat. Sauté your onions until slightly caramelized — light brown at most. Add garlic, ginger, and spices and sauté everything for another two to three minutes.
2. Add spinach, water, and increase heat to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low and let simmer for ten to fifteen minutes.
3. Blend with a stick blender until pureed. Stir in yogurt, cream, and garbanzos, and let simmer until everything is heated and uniform throughout.

This is properly known as Chana Saag, or spiced spinach with chickpeas. Other variations include Paneer Saag, (with cheese) Jhinga Saag, (with shrimp) and Saag Murgh. (With chicken.)

This recipe is one of my favorites and Lena loves it. If you don’t hate spinach, (and maybe even if you do) you’ll love it too.