The veggie garden harvest has slowed to a crawl for me, I really don’t do winter gardening very well, and the only thing I can guarantee being able to pick each week is silverbeet so I’ve been on the hunt for interesting recipes. For me I’m happy to use silverbeet in place of spinach, ocassionally the substitution doesn’t work but usually it’s fine. This recipe was originally designed for spinach, bit obviously I used silverbeet instead. It worked well and I actually liked the crunch of the silverbeet stems (though I cut out any of the bigger, tougher stems). It was also a night where the kids had eaten before Mr Good and I, this would not have gone down well with Miss Three at all, who doesn’t eat potato of any description and green stuff gets her nose turning upwards as well. Mr Good was a huge fan – there was not hiding the vegetarian-ness of this dish – but I thought it was pretty tasty.
1 tablespoon peanut oil (though I just used vegetable oil because I didn’t have peanut oil)
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds (I already had yellow ones so I used these instead)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
4 waxy potatoes (or lots of baby potatoes as I used), chopped (peel if you want to)
440g can peeled tomatoes. lightly crushed
1 1/4 cup fresh peas (or frozen if needed)
6 fresh curry leaves
1 teaspoon garam masala
400g silverbeet, trimmed
Heat oil in a deep frying pan, add the mustard seeds and cook over a medium heat until the seeds start making a popping sound. Add the onion and spices, except the garam marsala, to the pan and cook until the onion is soft and the spices are fragrant. Put the potatoes into the pan along with the tomatoes and a little water if needed, cover and cook until the potatoes are almost cooked, stirring so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Add the silverbeet and peas (if you’re using spinach add it a little later as it doesn’t need as much cooking as silverbeet), hen the curry leaves and garam masala. Cook for a further five or so minutes, checking that the potatoes are cooked through. Serve with steamed rice and a dollop of Greek style yogurt.
Linda always has something wonderful in the way of a vego fix, why don’t you go and check her’s our.
The New Good Life 
Miss 5 never used to like potatoes either, but then last Spring when I harvested the first lot of Kipflers she started liking them. Weirdly it was the skin she liked first but now she eats the whole lot (although she did draw the line at baked potato the other day).
And here I was thinking my child was just plain weird not to eat potato. Harvesting our spuds did nothing to encourage a like of this veg unfortunately. Mind you I think your Miss Five has splendid taste going for the skins, nothing I like better than a plate of crispy potato skins with a spicy salsa, sour cream and some fresh chives – even better with a bit of melted cheese on the top too!
Peel (like you would celery) the bigger tougher stems of the silver beet. This will make them tender,
Thanks for the tip Norma, I’ll try that next time.
The other day someone suggested to me that I should peel Asparagus. I thought that ridiculous, but then I thought back to my childhood days when my Dad absolutely insisted on scraping the skins off new potatoes – even the tiny ones the size of marbles.
Oh wow that seems sacrilegious, peeling gorgeous asparagus of new potatoes.