KEERAI MASIYAL RECIPE / SPINACH MASIYAL WITHOUT DAL

Keerai Masiyal Recipe With Step by Step photos | How to do Keerai Masiyal Recipe withput Dal | Spinach Masiyal

Keerai Masiyal is a nutritious side dish from Tamil Nadu made using greens. This dish is also known as Keerai Kadyal. This mildly spiced greens curry is so healthy , super easy and absolute tasty when served with Rice .

Some of the other Spinach recipes that you can check Palak Chutney , Palak Dal , Palak Paratha , Palak Pulao , Palak Soup etc

Though we all like variety of food ..love eating in restaurants…end of the day if you ask anyone,nothing can beat simple home cooked food.Today’s post ” Keerai Masiyal” is one such comforting no fancy dish.

What is Keerai Masiyal ?

Keerai Masiyal .. literally translates to Keerai – Greens and Masiyal – mash . It’s a very traditional healthy dish made commonly across South Indian households.

Keerai masiyal can be prepared in many ways. With Dal , without dal , with coconut , with onion garlic etc. Here I am sharing a very easy way of making keerai masiyal with spinach. This is a no onion garlic recipe made with just few basic ingredients . One can use any type of amaranthus or spinach in this recipe.

Ingredients :

• Spinach or any leafy greens – We can use regular Indian spinach, baby spinach or any leafy greens to make Keerai Masiyal .
• Green Chilli – This dish is usually mild , hence just 3-4 green chillies for a mild spiciness.
• Rice Flour – gives a nice thickness to the keerai masiyal .
• Coconut Oil – We use just around 2-3 tsp oil for tempering and coconut oil enhances the taste .
• Tempering – the regular mustard , cumin , urad dal , hing is used for tempering .

How to make Keerai Masiyal :

Clean the spinach from the bunch and wash it nicely in water 2-3 times. Remove all the dirt and mud. Chop the spinach leaves fine.

Transfer the chopped spinach to a vessel . Add 1 cup water , slit green chilli and a pinch of sugar. Let it cook on medium flame for 5 mins .Adding sugar while cooking , maintains the green colour of the spinach.

After few minutes the leaves will cook retaining the the color. Switch off. Separate the cooked spinach leaves and reserve the stock . Let the spinach cool a bit. By doing so , we can mash the spinach easily and nicely .

Mash the cooked greens very well. You may use a food processor or hand blender or mixer to puree. But i don’t like too smooth puree in my masiyal , hence use kadugolu / manthu .. the one we use make butter. Food processor is also ok .

Now to the retained stock , add rice flour and mix well such that no lumps are formed. Make sure that water is not hot , else lumps will form.

Add this rice flour slurry to the mashed greens . Add salt too . Keep the greens back to flame and let it cook for 3-4 mins . You will notice that currys texture has improved and has thickened nicely.

Now prepare a tempering . Heat a small kadai with coconut oil . Add Mustard , Jeera , urad dal to it . Let theu splutter . Add broken red chilli and a pinch of hing . Mix .

Pour the tempering over masiyal . Switch off . Serve keerai masiyal hot with rice.

Few Points to note while making Keerai Masiyal :

• You can use any variety of spinach or amaranthus .
• Don’t over cook spinach and also don’t cover & cook . This spoils the green color .
• Also use a pinch of sugar while cooking greens . Keeps the color of the spinach intact.
• Use Coconut oil only for best taste.
• Don’t skip rice flour which is used as a thickening agent . In case , you don’t have rice flour , use 2 tbsp cooked moong dal.

Here comes the recipe for Keerai Masiyal .. do try and share your feedback .