Curried Eggplant and Spinach

Considering how much I love Indian and Thai curries, I really haven't created slash shared enough curry recipes.  Today I want to share this creamy curried eggplant and spinach which is pretty darn good with paleo butter chicken and riced cauliflower, if I do say so myself.

In the last week, I've made 3 giant batches of our fantastic paleo butter chicken, and have eaten it at least once or twice a day in that time.  Don't worry, I've shared it with many friends in that time as well – I didn't eat all 3 Costco-packs of chicken thighs myself, haha.  And somehow I had never shared this with Holley, so she got to try some this week.

Strangely I didn't do anything amazing slash creative with the butter chicken, like my butter chicken omelette, or any of the many ideas I've had integrating it into other dishes.  But don't worry, I love this stuff so much, that I will not be sick of it anytime soon, and more ideas will be coming your way sooner or later.

By the way, if you're wondering about “slash“, I have a friend that says “slash” in conversations like you would say “and/or”, but “and slash or”,  in the most hilarious ways, often contradicting himself with each statement following “slash”.  For example, “I would really enjoy scuba diving, slash I am petrified of everything under the water, slash I dislike being wet”.  Maybe it's funnier in person slash when he does it, but it makes me giggle (er, it's a manly giggle slash no, it's not) every time.

I'm glad I finally created slash shared another curry recipe. Curried Eggplant and Spinach.  Pop-eye coulda used some flavor like this.  Maybe he woulda had more than just powerful forearms.

*Don't be intimidated by the length of the recipe.  It's simple, I just got a little wordy in my instructions.

Curried Eggplant and Spinach

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• Author: Raj - www.ThePrimalDesire.com

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 medium-large eggplant
• 3 Tbsp olive oil or ghee
• 1/2 yellow onion (chopped)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 –1 tsp cayenne powder
• 1 heaping Tbsp garam masala
• 1 cup coconut milk
• ~200g spinach (4-5 large handfuls – the majority of a 227g bag of spinach)
• 1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
• salt to taste
• (optional) 1 green chili pepper (finely diced)

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Cut eggplant in half length-wise, then score diagonally into inch-wide diamonds, then place skin-down on a cookie sheet (I like to use tinfoil for easier cleanup).
3. Spray or brush 1 Tbsp oil or ghee on each eggplant half and sprinkle with salt.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. In the meantime, over medium heat saute onions in remaining oil/ghee (sprinkle with salt) until soft. If you want this spicy, add chili pepper here (this is good mild or spicy).
6. Add garlic, ginger, turmeric, cayenne, and garam masala.
7. Cook until fragrant, stirring constantly to keep from sticking. Before the spices start to burn, add coconut milk and stir well.
8. When coconut milk is hot, add a large handful of spinach. The spinach will wilt down to nothing as it cooks. As it does, add more spinach.
9. Remove from heat or let warm over low heat while you wait for the eggplant to finish.
10. Once eggplant is finished, remove from oven and spoon out flesh from skin.
11. Add to spinach mixture, stir, and cook until everything is warm.
12. Stir in cilantro and add salt to taste – do not be scared of the salt. But don't go crazy either! Salt is gonna make or break this bad boy, so if it tastes unexciting, you probably just need a little more salt to pull out the flavors.

Notes

*Turmeric is exceptionally good at causing stains. My dad was infamous for staining his clothes when cooking while I was growing up. The secret, if this does happen to you, after washing the item, let it hang/dry in the sun. (One of the benefits of cooking without a shirt.)

• Cuisine: Indian