Keerai masiyal / Pureed Spiced Spinach

Spiced Pureed Spinach. This is the South Indian way of making a spicy gravy out of spinach.

North Indian's usually have spinach gravy like in palak paneer. Very rich but a little hard to make.
This South Indian curry has all the goodness of spinach intact, but is not too rich. And the cooking process is minimal. The onion and green chilly are added directly into the spinach. There is no tamarind or tomato added to the curry. Oil is also less. This is another great way to eat the leafy green.

We use a certain variety of spinach called 'ara keerai' to make this recipe. But it tastes just as good with other leaves like palak and ordinary cheera / keera

Arakeerai

Ingredients:
Spinach - 1 bunch
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Shallot / small onion - 3
Garlic - 2 cloves (optional)
Green chilly - 1 (add more or less to suit your family's taste)

For garnish:
Oil (preferable coconut / refined) - 2 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
White rice - 1 tsp (optional)
Red chilly - 2, broken

Method:
Wash the leaves well to remove all grime.
Place in a pressure cooker with little salt, turmeric powder, onion, garlic and green chilly. Pour in 1/2 cup of water.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles and turn off flame.

Mash / puree well.

Give it one boil and turn off flame.
Heat oil in a kadai and splutter the mustard. Then add in the urad dal, white rice and red chilly. Once dal turns red, add on top of the pureed spinach.
Serve at room temperature with hot rice and ghee.