Mushroom, chickpea and new potato saagwala

Whether you want to try out meat free Mondays, or you want a cheap midweek meal or a new dish for curry night on a Friday, this lovely, flavour-packed Saagwala will be a hit with everyone. I had never had a saagwala before this year, but it's now one of my favourite curries. As soon as I had tasted one in a restaurant earlier this year (in Marbella of all places!), I knew that I wanted to go home and try to recreate it. I've added a few new potatoes and some chickpeas to mine to make it a more substantial meal, but I think that I've totally nailed that lovely earthy, spinachy, spicy taste. As with most curries, it seems to taste even better the next day, so make plenty.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Spice mix

11teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

300g new potatoes par-boiled (for 5 minutes) and cut into 1cm cubes 2 large onions, finely diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 3cm ginger, finely grated 400g button mushrooms, stalks removed, sliced

200ml vegetable stock 2 tablespoons tomato puree

1/2 tsp sugar

1 can chickpeas, drained

Sea salt and black pepper

500g young spinach leaves

2 fresh green chillies (deseed them if you don't want it too hot)

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp sea salt

1 teaspoon garam masala

Large handful of freshly chopped coriander to serve

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients for the spice mix together.

Put 1½ teaspoons of the spice mix (reserve the remainder) and the potato cubes in a medium bowl and toss to coat in the spices.

Heat 1 tbsp oil (or ghee) in a large pan (preferably non-stick) over medium heat.

Cook the potatoes for about 4 minutes, shaking around in the pan to cook it on all sides, until golden brown, then remove from pan and set aside.

Add a little more oil (or ghee) if needed and add the mushrooms.

Fry the mushrooms for 2 minutes until lightly golden.

Remove and set aside in a jug (they will release some water as they sit, don't worry, you add this juice back into the curry).

Reduce the heat to low to medium, add 2 tbsp of oil (or ghee) and add the onions, cook for about 8 minutes until golden brown.

Place the spinach, chilli, salt and lemon juice into a food processor and blitz to a lovely green puree.

Add the garlic, ginger and remaining spice mix to the onions.

Cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the tomato puree and cook for 1 further minute, stirring regularly.

Add the potatoes, chickpeas and vegetable stock and stir in the blitzed spinach mixture.

Season with salt and pepper.

Simmer for 5 minutes until sauce has thickened slightly.

Add the mushrooms and their liquid and stir to combine.

Heat for 3-4 minutes.

Sprinkle over the garam masala and stir in.

Serve with basmati rice, a wedge of lemon and a warmed chapati.

Garnish with fresh coriander.

Delicious x