Rainbows: hope and pride and promises, a symbol of all good things. We're pleased to share a few recipes from issue 31's 'Things and People' subject, Meera Sodha (flick to page 48 of your issue) on Recipe Friday over the next few weeks, starting with this beauty.
We hope you'll enjoy cooking it, take pride in your flavoursome dinner and we promise it's tasty. Let's go.
Meera Sodha's rainbow chard sag aloo, making the Oh Comely office hungry.
Meera says: "I’ll never forget my mum’s head-turning squeal when she saw a bag of Desiree potatoes marked ‘grown in Lincolnshire’ in the aisle of a London supermarket. She’s evangelical about their butteriness, and proud of the fact they’re grown near our family home, so this dish, which uses a classic Gujarati spicing of cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli, appears regularly on the Sodha family table."
Serves 2 to 3 as a main course
400g rainbow or Swiss chard
3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
2 medium brown onions, sliced
600g Desiree potatoes
3cm ginger, peeled and grated
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
400g ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
1⅓ teaspoons chilli powder
⅓ teaspoon ground cumin
⅓ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
1¼ teaspoons salt
To prepare the chard, cut the stems from the leaves. Cut the stems into 4cm pieces and slice the leaves into 4cm strips.
Put the oil into a large lidded frying pan and, when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the onions and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until soft and golden brown. In the meantime, peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm cubes. When the onions are ready, add the ginger and garlic to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the potatoes and 200ml of water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and the chard stalks, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the chard stalks are soft. Add the chilli, cumin, coriander, turmeric and salt and stir gently. Finally, add the chard leaves, coat with the mixture and pop the lid back on for a final 2 to 3 minutes, until the leaves have wilted.
Serve with hot chapattis or rice, yoghurt and a little pickle.
Meera's new book, Fresh India, is out now.