Indian fried rice using leftovers

I've been busy lately and felt like eating some Indian food and also felt the need for some comfort food. I also wanted to use up some leftovers at the same time. I had some leftover rice and some cooked potatoes that were a recent breakfast side dish. I decided to make some improvised Indian fried rice.

I started with a little asafoetida, some cumin and diced red onion that I sauteed in a little sunflower oil. I added some mustard seeds, a little turmeric, mango powder and maybe some coriander. Sometimes my powdered spices look a little similar and I just go around in my steel spice holder getting about a quarter tsp of each using my tiny spice spoon that sits in the container. The kitchen was starting to smell wonderful with the Indian spices cooking, a scent that is very familiar, comforting and appetizing to me.

I added a can of washed kidney beans, the potatoes and then the rice, adding some water to get the consistency I wanted. I added some salt, garam masala, and a little Brewer's Yeast for added nutrition.

I heated some saag I made previously and had the rice mix with that. However, having it by itself with a little pickle and yogurt would have been just fine as well. I topped the Indian fried rice with a little diced red onion I had set aside. Yumm! I was done just in time for my daughter to wake up, who shared it with me.

After finishing my meal, I discovered some left-over broccoli that I could have used. I just added it to the leftover fried rice for next time.

Rice & Vegetables with Saag

 

A great Indian comfort food that is very nutritious, tasty, and that the whole family will enjoy is a rice & vegetable mix with Saag, which is an Indian dish normally made with spinach.  My preteen enjoys this with a side of plain yogurt.  I also like it with a little Indian pickle.  My 11 month-old baby enjoyed this mashed up a little with some plain kefir on the side.  

First, start your rice (I use Basmati) in a rice cooker and add frozen mixed vegetables toward the end.  The vegetables get steam-cooked with the rice.  I also added some cooked potato that I wanted to use up.  

While that is cooking, make your saag.  Start by sauteing spices of your choice.  I used a little asaefotida and added a ginger/garlic paste, along with turmeric.  Add diced tofu and cook till golden.  Add spinach.  I used some fresh spinach and added some frozen.  I also added some roasted garlic that I had on hand and wanted to use up.  Salt to taste as you go along - the salt gets soaked in better this way.  At the end, I added some garam masala (which you can get from the Indian store), or you could just try some black pepper. I added some cooked potato, which is optional.  I also added some corn meal flour as a thickener.  

I had started cooking fresh spinach in the slow cooker and added the remaining ingredients.  You can prepare it on the stove or put all your ingredients in the slow cooker to enjoy later.  You may want to saute the tofu separately to add towards the end.  This dish combination is completely vegan.  Traditional saag in India utilizes paneer, which is basically compressed ricotta cheese.  You can obtain this from the Indian store.  The dish would then be vegetarian.