Tamatar Palak Sabzi Recipe | Tomato and Spinach Recipe

“Are you really going to cook within 10 minutes or should I order pizza?” my hungry husband asks in a ‘dhamki’ (intimidating) tone.  Especially when he sees house in a mess, no signs of dinner on table, and it appears like I have been on internet all day.  A hungry man is an angry man. 

Tamatar-Palak ki Sabzi, my go-to 5-minute recipe

And I am a bored-of-eating-pizza-again woman.  So here’s what I do within the 10 minutes:

1. make a roti dough with wheat flour and water (and sometimes flaxseed meal), cover and keep aside.  Then,
2. the days I have plain dal pressure cooked and stored in separate containers to use over 3 days, I bring that out of the refrigerator.  Then,
3. the rice, usually cooked extra to last until the following lunch or dinner, is out of the refrigerator and into microwave for 2 minutes.  Meanwhile,
4. rinse tomato & spinach, chop them quick.  Use partly for making tamatar-palak dal (lentils with tomato & spinach) on one burner, and use remaining to make tamatar palak sabzi simultaneously on another burner.  Then,
5. prove to husband I cooked in 10 minutes, and ask (ahem, demand.) him to come help make roti together.

There.  Dinner’s ready.

Simple veggie recipe for busy people - Tomato & Spinach Subzi

Spinach and Tomato Curry (Palak Tamatar ki Sabzi)

Serves 2

What you'll need:

½ Tbsp oil

½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

1 cup tomato, chopped

¼ tsp turmeric (haldi) powder

1 tsp red chili (lal mirch) powder, or to taste

1 tsp coriander (dhaniya) powder

½ tsp cumin (jeera) powder

½ tsp dry mango (amchur) powder

2 cup spinach, chopped

½ tsp salt, or to taste

¼ tsp sugar

Let's Begin!

 

Heat oil on medium heat in a medium pan, add cumin seeds, let pop.  Add tomato.  Cook a minute or two.  Add all the powders.  Mix.  Add spinach, mix, cook a minute.  When tomato starts to get mushy, change color, and looks cooked, add salt and sugar, mix.  Switch off heat and cover.  Done.  Serve with roti or rice.

Quickest and easiest and simplest Spinach-Tomato Sabzi

This palak tamatar ki sabji is the quickest subzi I have figured out so far.  No parboiling, no boiling, no soaking, no steaming, no peeling, no extra work or process required.  Using two vegetables – tomato and spinach, and simple ingredients – haldi for color, chili powder for spice (or chop green chilies if you have time), dhaniya-jeera powder for taste, amchur for tang, and a hint of sugar to the taste of salt.  You can choose to add a pinch of garam masala too.

Now you can definitely sauté onion and garlic first then add tomato, or add other vegetables on hand, or add veggies like carrot or corn for color, or add other stuff like sesame seeds, grated coconut, peanuts, etc, etc, etc to your liking and experiment.  But this basic sabji cooked within 5 minutes is the simplest even a working person, a bachelor, or a student can make.  The sabzi goes well with rice because it’s not dry (tomato and spinach leave enough water to make it gravy-like consistency, or add more water if you like).

What do you cook the quickest when you are pressed for time?