Crackling spinach

Ingredients

• baby spinach 120g
• coarse gram flour 150g
• greek yogurt 200g
• granulated sugar 50g, (or more if you prefer the yogurt to be sweeter)
• black salt (kala namak) or sea salt flakes, to taste
• sweet date and tamarind chutney 4 tbsp, or combine 3 tbsp mango chutney with 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• hoisin or plum sauce 1 tbsp
• vegetable oil, for deep frying
• tomato 1 medium, chopped
• onion 1 medium, chopped
• chaat masala 1 tsp
• pomegranate seeds 120g

Method

• Step 1

  Wash the spinach leaves and drain well.

  Step 2

  Put the gram flour in a bowl, add a pinch of salt and just enough water (200-230ml) to make a thin batter. Leave the batter to rest.

  Step 3

  Put the yogurt in a bowl with the sugar and black salt, whisk it and set it aside.

  Step 4

  Put the chutney and hoisin sauce in another bowl, mix together, set aside.

  Step 5

  Fill a pan no more than a third full with oil and heat until 180C, or a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Coat each spinach leaf with batter and deep-fry until golden brown and crisp. Alternatively, add small handfuls of leaves to the batter and add to the oil together. Drain on kitchen paper for at least 1 hour until most of the oil is absorbed, leaving light, airy spinach leaves.

  Step 6

  Put the crispy spinach on a flat plate and drizzle over 2-3 tbsp of the yogurt and chutney mixture. Repeat, forming two to three layers of spinach, yogurt and chutney. Top the spinach with the tomato, onion, chaat masala and pomegranate seeds.

Nutritional data

• kcals 287
• fat 10.2g
• saturates 2.8g
• carbs 37.4g
• sugars 18.4g
• fibre 4.5g
• protein 9g
• salt 0.4g