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.
Robin Ellis 