Wow, I actually wrote this blog post while I was pregnant and I’m finally getting around to posting it!

I’m in this total nesting phase where everything has to be completely organized! Last weekend I went through all my recipe printouts from the last 15 years and ended up with one nice little book of recipes to try. This South Indian style spinach and potato recipe that I found here was one of them.

So last night I tried out the recipe changing it very little (delicious!) while I proceeded to deal with my spice drawers (why do I do these projects on a week night?). I got these amazing Chalky Talky jar labelsand SuperChalks liquid chalk marker (3mm) that I put on the top of the jars so that when we pull out the drawer, voila!, we can find the spices we need. Before it was just a draw full of golden topped mason jars with writing on the sides (um, you can’t see the sides when you open the drawer so it was very very annoying)…now it is a much more functional drawer with clear white on black labels.

So this spinach and potato dish is so good with just paratha which you can get at an Indian market and yogurt. Sorry about the picture, it was a last-minute-I-forgot-to-take-a-proper-picture kind of picture 🙂

If you ever have a question about an Indian ingredient, try looking at my Indian Food Glossary and Indian Spices lists. Also, if you ever have any questions, let me know!

3 medium potatoes peeled and chopped into big pieces
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal
3 green chilis chopped
7-8 curry leaves
Pinch hing (asafoetida)
1 onion thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 tomato chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 can coconut milk (about a cup)
1 teaspoon natural tamarind paste
~6 ounces spinach (you can use more, we just had a 6 ounce container)
Salt

1. Boil the potatoes with salt until tender.
2. Heat coconut oil in a saute pan and add the mustard seeds. After a few seconds, add the cumin seeds and urad dal. Once the mustard seeds pop, add the green chilis, curry leaves and hing. Then add the onions and saute until browned.
3. Add the ginger, tomatoes, turmeric and chili powder and cook until a paste forms. Add in the potatoes, coconut milk, tamarind, spinach and salt. Stir, cover, and cook until the spinach is wilted and the flavors meld.