Sara Dhanani

Palak Gosht

In Favorite Recipes on October 28, 2026 at 11:51 am

Some recipes are made with an intent to please. And there is no recipe, just an innate knowing that this belongs in this dish, at the moment. So you create, with intention but no outcome. And perhaps it lands as it was supposed to, to be pleasurable and to heal, just a little bit.

Ingredients

2-3 cups Spinach blanched with 2 cups of water and puréed

Meat -2.5 pounds of Beef/goat or chicken

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2-1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp Kashmiri Lal mirch

1 tsp ground coriander

3 cloves

3-5 whole green cardamom

1 black cardamom

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 red onion finely chopped

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

1/4 cup full fat yogurt or heavy cream

5 small green chilies

1/4 cup dried kasuri methi

Method:

Pressure cook the meat in the Insta Pot with 2-3 cups of water until fork-tender. You can use the Insta Pot or a separate pot for the rest of the recipe.

Heat up 3-4 tablespoons of avocado oil in a pot. Add your onions and sauté, then ginger garlic paste until it is fragrant. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter ( ..careful not to burn), add ground cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, Kashmiri Lal mirch, both the cardamoms, cloves. Now add the tomato paste and sauté till oil leaves from the side of the masala. Add salt and 1 heaping tablespoon of ground black pepper. There is something magical about the combination of black pepper with spinach, it somehow brings out the earthiness of spinach, so be liberal if you can handle the heat :), it’s a win win situation. Add your green chilies now.

Now add the meat with stock. Add the puréed palak and let it cook until you have a gravy which can coat the back of a spoon. Add heavy cream or yogurt to smooth out these flavors and kasuri methi. You may need a little oil to add on top. The recipe is finished once your curry has a glossy finish to it. Add some fresh coriander.

Sometimes it’s ok to write the recipe, while creating it, knowing you’ll never make it again the same way.

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Broccoli Cheddar Dumpling Soup

In Favorite Recipes, Vegetarian, Week night meals on August 22, 2021 at 1:18 pm

It’s 102 degrees here in Phoenix and this soup is still a regular on rotation here!

Recipe – full disclosure, I don’t measure fully and have taken lots of short cuts which I have added. This comes together in like 20ish mins.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp avocado oil
1 shallot or onion if you like, diced – approx 1/4 cup
1 or 2 spoons all purpose flour
Pinch of Cayenne
Pinch of nutmeg
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups water or broth
10 oz of broccoli florets ( I get these from WFM, pre cut)
Shredded carrots – like a 1/2 cup
1.5 cups shredded cheddar
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste

And the biggest cheat evaaaa! Premade biscuits. I defrost 3 of these and tear them up. This brand is amazing ( Mason Dixie Biscuits – buttermilk).

Heat a heavy bottomed pan, add oil and diced onion/shallots and cook till translucent, add all purpose flour and cook till it’s lightly colored ( basically to get the rawness of flour out).
Add water or broth, then milk. Add broccoli and cover the on medium heat. Cook till broccoli is tender, mash with the back of a spoon to the consistency you like. Add salt, pepper, cayanne, nutmeg.
Bring to boil, in the boiling soup add torn up biscuits (make them the size you like your dumplings to be). Cover and simmer till dumplings are done. Add cheese, gently stir and done!

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Matchi Bhaat

In Curries, Favorite Recipes on February 27, 2021 at 5:00 pm

I finally attempted a recipe my grandma used to make. It has intimidating me for Oh so long.

This is a delightful, fragrant fish curry which my family would serve with dill rice and fried fish with potatoes. My aunt sent her version and I changed it a little bit to make a saucier curry to serve with rice.

This traditional Sindhi recipe is made with dill, cilantro, green chilies, and preferably made with a firmer white fish. It’s a little labor intensive, but totally worth the time.

Ingredients:
3 Cod fillets cut in 1/2 or 3rds
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch dill
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 green chilies
2 teaspoons rai – black mustard seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds – crushed with a mortar and pestle along with 2 tbsp of cumin seeds
2 tomatoes ( my aunt didn’t use these but I thought they added a lot of flavor)
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp Cayenne
Salt to taste ( I needed a full teaspoon in the curry and also in the rice)
3 potatoes ( peeled and cube 2 and slice one potato)
2 cups basmati rice – wash till water runs clear and then soak in water till ready to use.

Method:
In a magic bullet/blender, blend 1 bunch of cilantro, 3/4 bunch of dill, garlic and chillies with 1 cup of water. Keep it aside, we will use 1/2 for the fish curry and the other half for the rice.

Fish Curry: my family used to make this very watery and serve with fried fish. I didn’t have the patience for that, so I made it with a thicker curry and it was really good)

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pot ( wide would be ideal, but anything works), add 1/2 of cumin/coriander, 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder, cayenne pepper and then 1/2 of the dill/Cilantro mixture. Let it fry. Add 2 chopped tomatoes and keep sautéing ( if it sticks, add 1/4 cup water) until the curry has some oil leaving it. Add 1 cup of water, bring to a simmer and add the sliced potatoes ( this was my addition, traditionally no potato in the curry) and cod. Cover and let it do it’s thing. You can cook it to your desired consistency.

Rice –
Heat oil in the vessel of your choice, add Rai seeds, rest of cumin/corriander seeds, 1/2 tsp of turmeric and then the rest of the cilantro/dill mixture. Chop the rest of your dill ( other 1/4 from the bunch) and add that now. Sauté. Add 3 -3.5 cups of water – bring to a boil. Add cubed potatoes, salt to taste. Once the water is boiling, drain the water from the soaked rice and add rice to the boiling water. I cook by estimating so 1:1.5 ratio is was I use (rice/water). Bring rice to boil, once boiling, lower heat and cover the pot till rice is done.

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