'It's so nice and soothing to eat, and you can enjoy it every season of the year,' says Chetna Makan
Paneer and cavolo nero saag from Chetna's Healthy Indian by Chetna Makan.
Our cookbook of the week is Chetna’s Healthy Indian by Chetna Makan, who rose to fame as a Great British Bake Off semifinalist. Over the next three days, we’ll feature more recipes from the book and an interview with its author.
Chetna Makan’s vibrant paneer and cavolo nero saag comes together quickly, its straightforward method belying a rush of refreshingly vegetal flavours. “It’s one of the healthiest meals because it’s hardly got any oil: It’s literally just drinking spinach and kale. It’s as simple as that,” she says with a laugh. “It’s very, very different to the kind of saag aloo people know from (takeout).”
Serve it on its own, with nothing more than chapatti, or as part of a menu if you’re cooking for a crowd: Makan recommends setting it out alongside her chicken and potato in pickling spices, sweet tomato and curry leaf salad, and fenugreek and gram flour flatbreads (all recipes are in Chetna’s Healthy Indian). “It’s so nice and soothing to eat, and you can enjoy it every season of the year,” she adds.
In her third cookbook, Chetna’s Healthy Indian, Chetna Makan shares 80 wholesome, feasible and flavourful recipes.
PANEER & CAVOLO NERO SAAG
200 g (7 oz) cavolo nero (a.k.a. lacinato or Tuscan kale), roughly chopped
200 g (7oz) spinach, roughly chopped
3/4 cup (200 mL) boiling water
1 tbsp ghee
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
225 g (8 oz) paneer, cut into small dice
1 tbsp whipping cream
Step 1
Place the cavolo nero and spinach in a saucepan over low heat and pour in the measured boiling water. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 5 minutes, until the leaves have wilted. Allow to cool a little, then transfer the mixture to the pitcher of a blender and process it to a purée.
Step 2
Heat the ghee in a saucepan over medium–low heat. Add the garlic and let it sizzle for 1 minute, then stir in the spinach purée, salt and chili powder. Cover the pan with a lid and cook gently for 5–7 minutes, until cooked through.
Step 3
Stir the diced paneer and cream into the saucepan and cook for a final 2 minutes, taste for seasoning and add more salt if desired, then serve immediately.
Serves: 4
Excerpted from Chetna’s Healthy Indian: Everyday Family Meals Effortlessly Good for You by Chetna Makan. Copyright © Chetna Makan 2019. Photography by Nassima Rothacker. Published in 2019 by Mitchell Beazley, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher.
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