From the pantry: spinach

Just like the acclaimed cartoon character, Popeye, led us to believe, spinach is one of the healthiest vegetables out there. The leafy vegetable is an excellent source of vitamins K and A. In this edition, we have an expert chef rustle up a quick salad and our winning reader recipe gives spinach a healthy and crunchy spin.

Crispy spinach salad

Recipe by: Amol Patil, executive head chef, 145 (Kala Ghoda)

Serves: One

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Fresh spinach leaves: 300g

Vegetable oil: for frying

Yoghurt: 50g

Cumin (roasted): 4g

Garlic: 5 to 6 cloves

Paneer: 70g

Salt: 2g

Sugar: 2g

(For spiced walnuts)

Walnuts: 30g

Honey: 15g

Cumin powder: 2g

Coriander powder: 2g

Chilli powder: 2g

Method

Heat oil in a pan, fry the spinach leaves till they get crispy , drain the oil on a paper. Keep them aside.

Dice the paneer and fry the pieces till they turn golden. Drain and put them in cold water.

For the spiced walnuts, mix all the ingredients together; bake the marinated walnuts in an oven for five to seven minutes at 170 degree Celsius. Set aside to cool.

For the yoghurt dressing, mix yoghurt with roasted crushed cumin, chopped fine garlic, salt and sugar.

To assemble the salad, place half of the spinach leaves in a salad bowl, sprinkle with half of spiced walnuts, and four to five pieces of paneer.

Drizzle yoghurt garlic dressing on top. Repeat the same ingredients again with crispy spinach, spiced walnuts, fried paneer and dressing on top.

Winning reader recipe