Name: Red Amaranth and Spinach with a Coconut-Chile Sauce (Shapu Keerai)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 pound fresh spinach leaves, well rinsed; 2 pounds fresh red amaranth, well rinsed, tough stems discarded (see Tip); 4 tablespoons coconut oil or canola oil; ½ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut; 8 to 10 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, to taste, stems removed; 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 1 tablespoon coriander seeds; 2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; Juice of 1 medium-size lime; 1 tablespoon skinned split black lentils (cream-colored in this form, urad dal), picked over for stones

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Deeply pink, this curry sure is pretty to look at—but don’t stop there. Dig a spoon into its velvety smoothness and sample it. The initial tartness of the lime will awaken your palate, followed by the silky smooth leaves that will coat your tongue with their buttery texture and slight bitterness. The moment you swallow a mouthful, you will feel the gentle burn of the fiery chiles in the sauce, masked by the sweetness of fresh coconut. You may break into a sweat, but my bets are on you givin