Garlic and onions get sauteed in the sesame flavored oil, seasoning the spinach with a delightful combination of flavors.
A light break from the rich, luxurious recipes I had been posting recently. Here is a simple, comfort food from home. Often times memories of home flood in. I miss the the big meals, served a step after the other so each dish is entirely relished, body and soul nourished at the end of it all. I had written about the complete course of a Bengali meal before; any kind of green leafy vegetables holds a very important place in our diet and are served in various ways. This is one of the easy recipes.
Back home, this is not cooked exactly this way. I have made some changes, for here the spinach unlike at home is not always served with rice. I have added some sesame seeds and often times cook with sesame oil for some extra flavor. Adapting to needs and catering to urges – that is how new recipes are born. Overall, this is a very healthy and flavorful dish.
Spinach with Fried Garlic and Caramelized Onions
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch fresh spinach or 1lb frozen spinach or 1lb baby spinach
- 4-5 large cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 small onion, sliced thin
- 1 whole red dry chili
- 1/2 teaspoon white sesame seeds
- salt
- 1.5 teaspoons oil (use sesame oil for some added flavor – I have used the 100% pure Asian Sesame Oil)
- fresh lemon
- some roasted peanuts, crushed would be a nice way to garnish ( I have not used it here)
Preparation:Wash the spinach well. (take care to see there you wash off the dirt if you are using fresh spinach); drain and tear the spinach roughly.
Add sesame seeds and oil in a pan and let the oil heat up (this flavors up the oil); add the red dry chili and the chopped garlic. Fry till the red chili darkens and the garlic turns light golden. Add the sliced onions and saute at low to medium heat till the onions are light brown/lightly caramelized. The garlic with turn darker while the onions are getting brown, and that is okay.
Add the spinach and the salt and stir till everything combines. Cover and cook at low heat till the spinach is cooked and all the water is absorbed.
Sprinkle fresh lemon juice.
Serve with rice or flat bread./ Serve as a side.
This dish is on the way to NCR-Onions etc, hosted by Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes.
Related Posts:
Palak Paneer/Spinach with Indian Cheese
Aloo Methi/Potatoes with Fenugreek Leaves
A simple, beautiful dish! Did you use Asian sesame oil or Indian gingelly oil?
Asian Sesame oil. I will update the post 🙂 Thanks
Just loved the dish…spinach is my altime favourite …I too prepare spinach sometimes more or less in the same way,…..
So delicious and beautiful–lovely green spinach. Recipes reborn are the best! I love your changes. Such a great flavorful dish!
Just perfect! That’s the way I love to eat my spinach!
Cheers,
Rosa
Nice recipe Soma. Love the combination of greens with garlic and onions. I make it in a similar way, but liked the idea of adding crushed peanuts.
Is this by any chance for this month’s No Croutons Required or are you just being psychic again? By the way, it looks yum and the photos are beautiful. Gorgeous colours.
I love the simplicity of this dish!!!
Soma this recipe has all the ingredients I like spinach, garlic and caramelized onions 🙂
I can feel the aroma from here and love it!!
Cheers,
Gera
The next bag of fresh spinach gets made this way. Nice and simple.
This is a dream recipe. It has everything good in it.
I never tried to add sesame seeds, simple and delicious!
Soma, this is very delicious dish. love the spinach in any form. I’m sure the garlic-onion did add an extra flavor to this dish. 🙂
Fried garlic and caramelized onions…so aromatic for the spinach 🙂
Fried garlic and caramelized onions…so aromatic for this spinach dish 😀
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Oh, I certainly do not cook and eat spinach often enough and maybe that is for lack of exciting, enticing recipes. This one looks luscious and sounds delicious!
such a flavorful dish…looks so tasty..
Excellent with fried garlic and caramelized onions, yum!
Being a bengali myself I have always used poppy seeds with palong – shak- bhaja ( spinach fry) and with garlic but no onions. Sesame seeds and caramelised onions will surely give the old shak bhaja a new makeover!
I make a similar recipe and I usually add that spinach to pasta and it is fantastic!
This combination of flavours is making me hungry in the morning. Have a wonderful weekend.
vat a great comobo!!! m sooo loving the addition of caramelized onions and fried garlic!!! cant wait to try this!!
cheers and have a lovely dayy!!
This looks absolutely delicious! I am actually going to be eating bengali food on thursday since a friend (from India) is gonna be cooking for me… 🙂 Can’t wait to taste it all!
Mmm, I love everything about this dish! Sounds like it would pair beautifully with almost anything, too.
Fantastic Soma! I too have started adding caramelized onions in my greens! Love the flavor!
This is a very unique dish with awesome ingredients ,wish to try it out soon!
We used to make this saute exactly this way sans the groundnuts and lemon. Instead sprinkled with some freshly ground pepper it tastes divine when mixed with rice. Lovely dish Soma!
sure this will be delightful spinach recipie…I do the same, only add jeera instead of sesame seeds…..next time, am following your recipie !
This is a dish I love and very very close to a lebanese one with wild dandelions!
This recipe looks great!
I am eating this as I type this; it is fantastic! I don’t like lemon in my savory dishes (*hides*), and I don’t like nuts either (*hides again*), but I used everything else in the dish. I will never look at spinach the same again. YUM!
Thanks to your blog, I have bookmarked a million recipes. I also went to my favorite Indian grocery and bought more ingredients for future dishes. I cannot wait to fill up my masala dabba with my new spices and to make so many of your curries and other dishes. Danyavad! Dhanyawaad!
That has to be the sweetest comment I have read in a while! 🙂
Dhayawaad to you, for trying out things that are not so familiar and liking them!! These are some of the simple basic homecooked meals, which no restaurant will ever serve, and I am glad that I can have people like you to understand and like them.
love ya
Soma