If you ask why mushroom and spinach with burnt garlic? It’s for the love of veg!!
I have been asked why my posts are always about chicken, meat, fish or seafood. They ask “Do you not eat (or cook) any vegetables?”. The answer is “yes, I do.” In fact, while growing up, for every meal, my mom used to serve two vegetable based curries. Even now, we have at least one vegetable dish included in our lunch and dinner meals. But, for me, the “hero” in all those meals has been the protein, which is the aforesaid chicken, meat or fish. That’s why I almost, always, post these “hero” recipes.
This week, I thought I’ll post a vegan recipe. For the main ingredients I have chosen mushrooms and spinach. Loaded with the rich, earthy flavours of mushrooms and spinach, and flavoured with some burnt garlic, onions and black pepper, this is a nice, warm bowl of food you’ll love on a rainy day.
Mushroom and Spinach with Burnt Garlic
Ingredients
- 400 grams Button mushroom
- 200 grams Spinach
- 2 tablespoons Garlic
- 1 Onion medium size
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- To taste Salt
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1/2 inch Butter (optional)
Instructions
- Wash the mushrooms and spinach, and drain the water.
- Slice the mushrooms lengthwise into halves. Finely chop the onion (not shown in the picture) and garlic. Coarsely grind the black pepper. You don't have to chop the spinach leaves.
- Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the onions on a low flame for about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and continue frying.
- Continue frying until they start turning brown. Don't let the onions and garlic get fully burnt. Maintaining a good aroma is the trick. When you start getting the burnt smell, stop immediately. Take half of this burnt garlic and onion mixture and keep it aside. We'll use this for garnishing.
- To the remaining garlic and onion in the pan, add the ground black pepper, 1/4 cup of water (not more than that) and mix well.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and mix well.
- Close the lid and cook on a low flame for 5 minutes.
- Open the lid and you can see the mushrooms are cooked to perfection in the flavourful juice.
- Add the spinach and stir well.
- Close the lid and cook for another 3 minutes on low flame.
- Open the lid and cook for another 2-3 minutes on a high flame while stirring occasionally.
- Garnish with the garlic and onion that we had kept aside. Serve hot in bowls accompanied by some steaming rice or sticky rice. Rice is not mandatory. Instead, just take a spoon and dig in. If you are not specific about the vegan part, drop a blob of butter on top. You'll love it more. This is a perfect,hearty bowl of food to enjoy a rainy day at home.
This looks incredible !!
Thank you very much Chandreyee! 🙂 It tastes great too!!
Looks great!
Looks amazing:)