Lamb in Pureed Spinach (Saag Gosht)

Submitted by Baz231

"A delicious and nutritious Indian dish. Can complete the cooking in the oven if you need the stove top for other dishes, so ideal for a dinner party. Can also use tinned tomatoes instead of fresh. Easier to make than it looks!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 40mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 750 g lamb (can substitute chicken)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• ghee or oil
• 2 inches fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 fresh tomatoes, chopped (or 1 can of tinned tomatoes)
• 500 g frozen chopped spinach (fresh spinach works fine too)
• 4 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped

• Spices 1

• 4 cloves
• 2 brown cardamom pods
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed

• Spices 2

• 1⁄2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground coriander

• Spices 3

• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves (optional)

directions

1. Remove fat and cut meat into cubes.
2. Seal the meat by lightly browning in a saucepan (stir to prevent sticking) and then remove.
3. At the same time, in a separate pan or wok, fry onion until golden in some ghee or oil, then add ginger, garlic and Spices 1.
4. Add tomatoes after 5 minutes.
5. Add the browned meat, add Spices 2 and the spinach.
6. Stir it all about ensuring it doesn't stick and that the spinach is distributed throughout. (If it seems too dry add a little water.).
7. Simmer until the meat is tender- about 45 to 60 minutes (although it will improve if cooked longer- just make sure it doesn't dry out, by adding water.).
8. Add Spices 3 and fresh coriander and cook for at least another 10 minutes.
9. Serve with Pullao/Basmati Rice.

Reviews

[Harry Harris]

This is the best Lamb and Spinach curry I've tasted. (I've tried it with Chicken also and it is equally good.) Tastes best when finished in the oven and cooked for more than an hour. Just keep checking to make sure it doesn't get too dry. If so, add some water and stir.

 

[JustJanS]

We cooked and ate this for dinner tonight. It was just for the two of us, so I halved the meat, but (taking note of Bergy's review)left the sauce ingredients as written. I used tinned tomatoes, and frozen spinach and about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. I think next time I make this, I'll add maybe 1/2 a cup of yoghurt to it too. This recipe looked complicated with the spices listed as they are, but it couldn't have been easier to make.

 

[noenic]

Needed a lot of tweaking but was very tasty in the end. Even using boneless loin it needed 90 minutes simmering after the initial prep/frying off was done. The spice mix was a bit flat so I added a variety of others to lift things as well as lemon juice and nam pla. I used 450gm meat and simmered the sauce down to where I could drag a spoon through and see the base of the pot. The sauce-meat ratio worked well at that point. In short, a good starting point but I'd suggest it's for more confident cooks who don't mind tasting and adjusting as they go.

 

[Roosie]

This turned out pretty well, but we felt that the spices were a little off. We just felt that this didn't quite have the rich spiced flavor of many Indian dishes that we've made and loved. I used cannted tomatoes and frozen spinach and I had to substitute the brown cardamom with green because that's what I had on hand. I think I agree with Jan that this would perhaps benefit from a bit of yogurt being added, or BF and I thought of as we were discussing what we thought of this dish perhaps a bit of lemon juice? We did serve with yogurt, but I also think that perhaps the spicing was a bit too mild as well. I thought it was very easy to follow with the way you have listed the spices. It makes it much easier not to forget something. I got a little confused with steps 1-4, which say to sear the meat and to fry the onion. Now, step 4 says "at the same time fry onion", but I was unsure as to whether this meant with the meat or in a seperate pan? I seared the meat, removed it from the pan, then fried the onion, and added the meat with the spinach. The fact that the recipe does not say when to add the meat confused me too. Anywhow, it turned out alright in the end. We served it over a spiced saffron rice and with an eggplant curry of our own devices. All-in-all, not bad!

 

[Thymestudio]

Lovely meal. The house smelled delightful while it was cooking. I found the recipe easy and tasted great. I served it with lemon rice and Naan for a hearty yet simple meal. Only thing I did different was add a little cream at the end of step 8.