Sag aloo

A lovely simple summery curry - inspired by the fact that I’m currently thinking about my top 5 chard recipes, and the fact that I had both a plant-based person and coeliac at our volunteer session this week - and this (assuming you use sunflower oil, rather than ghee) is both gluten free and vegan.

I served with rice and a couple of little additions - a kind-of kashumber-inspired chopped salad (well before cucumbers or tomatoes are ready at the farm) with radish, scallions, coriander and lime juice and a yoghurt seasoned with salt, pepper, chopped mint and garlic scapes.

Serves 4-6

1kg floury potatoes
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 generous teaspoon cumin seeds
1 generous teaspoon mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 red chill, chopped (or more if you like it spicy) or chilli flakes or powder if you don’t have fresh
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
4 small onions (or 2 large)
1 generous teaspoon tumeric
1 generous teaspoon garam masala
1 large jar of cooked chickpeas or bean (optional)
Squeeze of lemon juice

1) Wash and chop up the potatoes into chunks. Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until they are just cooked. Strain and leave to one side.
2) Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan or casserole dish. Add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds and fry until fragrant.
3) Add the onions, garlic, chilli, ginger, tumeric and garam masala to the pan and stir well. Season with some salt. Cook over a low heat for around ten minutes while you prep the chard.
4) Wash the chard and strip the greens off the stalks. Roughly chop the greens and finely slice the stalks. Add the stalks to the pan with the onion mix to cook.
5) Once the onions and chalk stalks are tender you can add the chard leaves. Stir well until the chard starts to wilt.
6) Add the cooked potatoes. And stir to make sure they are all well-coated and warm.
7) I also added a large jar of beans to turn this side dish into a veggie main meal.
8) Taste and add more salt if necessary. Turn off the heat and add a good squeeze of lemon juice to finish the dish.