Mid Week Saag Aloo with Kanteen
To celebrate the lovely Kanteen becoming a stockist of Lifebox we caught up with the super talented Head Chef Ben Morgan, who shared with us some serious gluten free, healthy snack inspo in the shape of this yummy Saag Aloo recipe:
One of our favourite and most popular vegan hot boxes at Kanteen is our take on the Indian classic Saag Aloo. This is a potato and spinach curry which is both vegan and gluten free. We serve it with a mixture of steamed basmati and wild rice, a crunchy cabbage and mint salad topped with mango chutney.
Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients, all the spices will last for months and the dish can be prepared in advance and reheated. It’s a nice easy dish that will satisfy even the hungriest of families as a healthy snack or mid week treat.
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Saag Aloo
500g Baby New Potatoes
2 Large White Onions, roughly diced
1 Green Chilli, finely chopped
1 Red Chilli, finely chopped
1 2cm Knob of Ginger, peeled and grated
8 Salad Tomatoes, quartered
4 Cloves of Garlic, pealed
1 large bag of Baby Leaf Spinach
2 tsp Garam Masala
2 tsp Curry Powder
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Turmeric
1 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
2 Gluten Free Vegetable stock cubes
300 ml Water
100ml of Rapeseed or any neutral cooking oil
salt and pepper
Steamed Basmati and Wild Rice
150g Easy Cook Basmati Rice
150g Easy Cook Wild Rice (You can substitute basmati for this if you wish)
Sat and Pepper
Crunchy Cabbage and Mint Salad
1/2 Red Cabbage thinly sliced
1/2 White Cabbage thinly sliced
1/2 Red Pepper thinly sliced
1/2 Green Pepper thinly sliced
1/2 Yellow Pepper thinly sliced
4 Salad Tomatoes diced
120g Bunch Fresh Mint
1 Small Bag of Mixed Leaf Salad
1 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
salt and pepper
Mango Chutney
Any good quality shop bought chutney
Method
Saag Aloo
- Pre heat your oven to 180. Cut the potatoes in half, place in a roasting tray. Mix through 50 ml of the oil, season well with salt and pepper and place in the hot oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and tender. Once cooked drain off any excess oil, drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
- Meanwhile heat the remaining oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan on a low heat. Add the onions, chopped chillies and grated ginger and sweat for 5 minutes until they are starting to soften. Add all of the dry spices to the pan and cook out for 5-10 minutes stirring regularly to ensure they don’t stick and burn.
- While the spices are cooking place the tomatoes and garlic into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Then add to the pan along with the water and stock cubes.
- Bring to the boil and simmer until the sauce has reduced to a curry like consistency and add the cooked potatoes to the pan and stir.
- After five minutes add the spinach to the pan, stir well, remove from the heat and cover with a lid until the spinach has wilted then season to taste.
Rice
- At Kanteen we are lucky enough to have a rice cooker which guarantees perfect fluffy rice every time. If you don’t own a rice cooker just cook the rice according the instructions on the packet.
Crunchy Cabbage and Mint Salad
- Wash and dry your salad leaves.
- Thinly slice both cabbages and peppers and roughly chop the mint and tomatoes. Mix by hand in a salad bowl then dress with the vinegar and season.
Serve the Saag Aloo on a bed of rice, top with the fresh crunchy salad and a good dollop of mango chutney, then enjoy!