Robin Ellis

Sounding like some overly defended creature of the deep, this is tastier than the name suggests!

A one pot dish of spicy spinach with a modicum of rice for ballast.

Spinach and rice with yogurt sauce and left-over lemon lentils

Adapted from a recipe posted recently by Martha Rose Shulman in The New York Times.

Simple to do.

for 2 plus

450gms/1lb fresh spinach–washed and drained of surplus water

2 tablespoons brown basmati rice–washed and soaked in cold water for 30 minutes

1 small onion–chopped

2 garlic cloves–chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tinned tomatoes–about 100 gms/4oz–chopped

1 teaspoon sweet hot smoked paprika (a prince of the spice world)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice–about a lemon’s worth

3 tablespoons water or stock

• Steam, covered, the prepared spinach for a few minutes until it starts to wilt–remove from the heat.
• Drain the rice and cook it–salted and covered–in enough water to cover it by a thumb nail; should take about 25 minutes–set aside.
• Heat the oil in a pan and gently soften the onion for a couple of minutes before adding the garlic.
• Sauté for a further couple of minutes.
• Add the spices and the tomatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes–making a sauce.
• Add the lemon juice, water, spinach and rice and mix together.
• Cover and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes.
• Traditionally this is served with a yogurt sauce–which helps neutralise the sometimes tooth tingling after-effect of the spinach.