Thursday, October 6, 2011

Slow Cooked Chana Saag

Do you have a slow cooker?  Probably.  You've probably been slow cooking for years.  Well, I am late to the slow cooking party.  We never had a slow cooker when I was growing up and I've had literally no exposure to them.  That changed last week when my very first slow cooker arrived in the mail.

Meet our new addition!
Before it even got here, I reserved a few slow cooking books from the library.  This week, I excitedly cracked open The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester.  I've now made two dishes from this book and they've been fabulous!  Of course I had to try a greens recipe, so I made Chana Saag (I opted to use spinach along with the chickpeas).  The Indian dish wafted its gingery, spicy aroma through my house all day.  Lucky me!

The doggles long for some chana saag.

This dish was really simple and really tasty.  I've never been to India, but Indian cuisine is one of my favorites and this Chana Saag tasted pretty authentic to me.  I opted to use a bit of leftover cashew sour cream in the place of nondairy milk.  The citrus flavor really shined too, creating a creamy dish, both rich in substance and complexity of flavor.

For a little added flavor, I topped my chana saag with cilantro.

Usually Matt takes a sandwich to work everyday for lunch, but during MoFo, he gets to take leftovers from the previous night's dinner.  Last night he was especially excited to hear there were enough leftovers for his lunch.  Just one of the perks of doing so much cookin'!

12 comments:

  1. That looks great! I have a slow cooker and have been using it a bit more as work has been crazy. You have me inspired to try more recipes.

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  2. I've not got a slow cooker but am thinking about getting one. I love the idea of food waiting for me when I get home from work.

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  3. It took me a while to decide on a model, but so far I love this one. And it was cheap too!

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  4. I don't have a slow cooker, but I make channa saag all the time. I almost want to get one just to see if it makes a significant difference! (I can't afford it, though, so it's a moot point for the moment.)

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  5. We are huge saag lovers here, I'll have to check out this recipe. Plus I generally reserve my crockpot for beans, so I'd love to learn some new ways to use it.

    xo
    kittee

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  6. Oh, yum! This sounds just delicious.

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  7. wow, that looks crazy good. I have a funky old slow cooker that my mom found at the thrift store, but I don't use it all that often. I really want to get my hands on this book and put it to use! Thanks for the encouragement!

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  8. I just got a new slow cooker, too, and have been testing recipes for Robin Robertson. In fact, there's a cranberry chutney cooking right now. And tomorrow's recipe is prepped and ready to go into the cooker when I wake up in the morning. The chana saag looks great; I think I'll look for that cookbook.

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  9. Mmm cranberry chutney sounds yummy. It's so much fun learning a new appliance!

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  10. I am super excited about trying this one too! Yummy!! ~Carly

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  11. Thanks for posting about my book. I am so glad you like the chana saag recipe! It's one of my favs.

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  12. Thanks for the great recipe, Kathy! I look forward to trying more!

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