Palak Bhaji (Maharashtrian Style Spinach Bhaji)

पालकाची पळीवाढी भाजी
Everyone has their own way of cooking and I enjoy learning from my friends their way of making certain recipes. I used to make this same bhaji in a very different way and Renuka, my friend, came to stay with me and this is one of the recipes I learned from her.

Here is the simple recipe -


Spinach BhaajI


1 large Spinach Bunch
1/4 cup Peanuts
1/4 cup Chana Daal
1-2 tbsp Besan
2-3 Dried Red Chilies
2 Cloves of Garlic
small golf ball size Tamarind
small ball of Jaggery
salt and Red Chili Powder per taste
1 tsp Goda Masala
Tempering - 1 tbsp oil, Cumin Seeds, Mustard Seeds, Turmeric, Asafoetida
2-3 cups Water (or as required)

Preparation -

Soak daal and peanuts in cup of water for an hour. Meanwhile clean spinach and chop fine and set it aside. After an hour mix daal/peanuts and spinach and pressure cook with 1-2 whistles.
After pressure cooker cools down whisk the cooked daal, spinach add besan to it. Also add salt, red chili powder, goda masala, jaggery. Squeeze pulp out from soaked tamarind and add pulp to the spinach mix too. Let all boil for 5-6 minutes.
Chop garlic, I prefer smashing it first and then chopping. Break red chilies in 2 pieces.
Heat oil in small kadhai (phodanichi vaati), add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, turmeric and chopped garlic. Let it sizzle and then add red chilies. Turn the gas off. Add the phodaNi to boiling spinach bhaji and turn it off.
Serve warm with rice or chapati.

Tips -

1. You can add few cashew pieces, sliced dried coconut to the phoDaNi and add 1 more tbsp oil.
2. You can make same bhaji using taro(patra/Aluchi bhaji) leaves. You will have to add little more tamarind. You should also use peeled and chopped Taro/patra stems.

You can use goda masala recipe from Anita, can be found here or from Jyotsna and can be found here