297: Spinach Koftas in Yogurt Sauce

I’ve been looking to boost the flavour of our veggies, as we’ve just finished the first of six weeks of hard-core Fuhrman. We like Indian, and there are many Indian recipes that are vegetarian, so we figured that was a good place to start.

(That’s steam coming off the Koftas in the foreground).

Spinach Koftas in Yogurt Sauce
(adapted from Cooking Curries by Jane Lawson)

Yogurt Sauce
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1/3 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
1 Tbsp. oil
2 tsp. yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp. fenugreek seeds
2 Tbsp. curry powder
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

To make the yogurt sauce, whisk yogurt and chickpea flour together with 1 1/2 cups of water to make a smooth paste.

Heat oil in heavy skillet over low heat. Add mustard and fenugreek seeds. Cover and allow seeds to pop for 1 minute. Add the curry powder and the onion and garlic and cook until soft.

Add the yogurt mixture, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Koftas

1 package of frozen chopped spinach (1 pound)
1 1/2 cups chickpea flour
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 ripe tomato, diced
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 tsp. cumin seeds
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
oil for frying (or pan for baking)

Defrost the spinach over night in the refrigerator, or pour boiling water over frozen leaves and drain. Combine with remaining ingredients. If it’s too dry, add water, 1 tsp at a time. You’re looking for something roughly the consistency of meatloaf. If the mixture is too sloppy and won’t hold together, add more chickpea flour.

Shape mixture into balls. It should make about 12 Koftas.

At this point, you can either fry the Koftas in a heavy skillet filled 1/3 with oil at about 350F. Or you can pan fry them in the same skillet with far less oil. Or you can bake them in a 350 oven for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the koftas from the oil or the oven, and add them to the yogurt sauce, taking care not to break them. Gently reheat the yogurt sauce, garnish with cilantro leaves, and serve.

We ate 3 Koftas each with a large salad. Michael dumped his Koftas and sauce onto his salad.