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?

28 comments:

  1. Hey lovely recipe and real quick!! On top of it healthy..yumm :)

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  2. Nice n yummy curry...very quick curry

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  3. I like your idea of 10 minutes cooking,this tomato and spinach looks easy. If I need some thing in 10 minutes, I will go for fried rice.As cooked rice will be there then chop and cut vegetables and cook and mix with rice. Eat with a pickle and lays potato chips.

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    1. Thanks Swathi. Yes, fried rice is another great idea for a quick meal!

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  4. Awesome... and you husband must be thinking you are a super woman to cook so much in 10 minutes... ;) It's great to have a recipes like these to get things done faster. I love palak and tamatar combo.

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    1. If I could cook rice & dal along with roti & sabzi all from scratch in 10 minutes, only then I would be a superwoman :D Half the things precooked help.
      And with a usually-angry-husband, I have learned to be quick :D

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  5. Quick,healthy and delicious.loved this jhatpat subzi:)

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  6. Thats seriously quick Nisha... I dont do things like this and whenever the huss says "Shall i order Pizza" I just jump at the opportunity..

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    1. Haha. I used to say yes for pizza earlier (less work in kitchen, sure!), but now I'm super bored after eating so often.

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  7. Loved reading the opening lines of your post :) I can very well identify with the situation. Thankfully, after 6 years of marriage and many such occasions I can usually come up with something quick . Palak sabzi has also been one of those quick fixes on one such occasion. Your looks delicious.

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    1. Thanks Sadaf!! :)
      1.5 years of married life and I'm still learning. I hope in 6 years I'll get better - in handling him I mean, lol ;) :P

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  8. very nice, you're amazing.. 10 mins. it would take me about 15-20 i think to make the subzi alone. i know man, men are so damn demanding.
    i hate DHAMKIs.

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    1. It's because of this quick subzi with it's 2-in-1 use in dal as well, otherwise it would take me 1 hour to cook everything.
      As for demanding husbands, seriously need to do something about it :P

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  9. In our household, it's either my husband or I who can be in the kitchen at any point:) Coz I have such a problem in the way he does things though I enjoy the end result :) haha! it's tough not to keep nagging you know... ;-)
    Nice, quick recipe for weekdays :)

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    1. Hehe, that was the case with my mom & I - she couldn't stand me complaining about everything.
      Agree, lol, 'tough not to keep nagging' :D :D

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  10. Am living this combo,such a fabulous and super tempting dish.

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  11. thats great... i do agree that an hungry husband is an angry husband... know it for myself. i just cook some rotis with the atta there is in the fridge and make some quick sabzi with whatever is there in the fridge.

    the tamatar palak sabzi is looking delicious.

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    1. We all learn to adapt to our husband's moods & tempers, I guess. Hehe.
      Thanks, Dassana.

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  12. Looks so inviting and delicious...mouthwatering!

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  13. love that first shot! so simple and perfect!

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  14. Wowww....thts so quick...m goin to make dis today..thnxxx nisha

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  15. Thanks so much about this recipe, I didn't have much time today, and this really saved the day, not just saved, well made it even better. :)

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  16. Thanks. It looks delicious. But quick question. When you say, "When tomato starts to get mushy, change color, and looks cooked..." How long does this take approximately? Or quite simply, after adding spinach, how many minutes does it take approximately to get done? Thanks. -Sandeep

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  17. I never thought this yummy recipe can be done this way, so easy! Thank you for sharing..

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  18. I made it today for my mother who was sick. And you won't believe she was so happy to know that her daughter could cook so well. Thanks alotttt. :) :)

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  19. This is really an easy, delicious and healthy recipe. Tried it and now it's added in my regular dishes to cook

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