Spinach Curry Sauce with Crispy Tofu
Simply scrumptious, this spinach curry sauce is creamy and flavorful with a handful of healthy ingredients. It is delicious to slurp on as is, or with some of your favorite sauteed meat or well spiced crispy tofu.
Slightly caramelized onions intertwine with sauteed ginger and garlic as the base of this rich and tasty spinach curry sauce.
Then celery is added in along with a few spices such as turmeric, coriander, and smoked paprika, (that you probably have hanging out in your kitchen). Next, this mixture is added to a blender along with a whole bag of spinach, a jalapeno, and some vegetable stock. Finally, all these ingredients are blended into a creamy, scrumptious concoction.
We love this spinach curry sauce because:
• creamy without any added milk or cream – not even coconut milk;
• it is full of flavor without any added fat from butter or too much oil. In other words, maintaining your girlish figure is easy as pie with this deliciousness;
• it is gluten free (so long as you use unflavored tofu);
• it is vegan; and
• it is so healthy!
I could slurp on bowl after bowl of this creamy spinach curry sauce. Actually, forget the bowl, I did could slurp on this right out of the blender.
I am a huge fan of food that acts as medicine. Food that lights up my cells and makes my skin glow from the inside ~ know what I mean? Those healthy foods like ginger, garlic, and spinach that work wonders for how I feel on the inside.
And, in this day of ‘Rona, the added immune-boosting nutritional punch this Spinach Curry Sauce packs, is a welcomed bonus.
Tips in making this Spinach Curry Sauce:
By the way, if you don’t want to add a whole jalapeno into the mix, then scrape out the jalapeno seeds – which are the spicy part – but add the rest of the jalapeno in for flavor.
Speaking of flavor, it would be easy to add in raw onion, ginger, garlic, and celery, but sauteing these for a just bit in some olive oil, really ignites their flavor.
You can thin this spinach curry sauce out with a little more vegetable stock and enjoy it as a gloriously tasty Spinach Curry Soup.
Or, enjoy this creamy thick sauce with some roti on the side. Another option would be to saute some well spiced chicken, or pork, or fish, or tofu (like I did here) and toss it into this sauce.
When I made this sauce, I had a block of firm tofu hanging out in my fridge. So, I figured I would drain it, pan saute it until crispy, and toss it into this sauce.
How do I make tofu crispy?
My method for getting tofu crispy is pretty fuss free.
- Simply wrap the tofu up in some paper towels for about 30 minutes.
- Then dice the block of tofu up.
- Add the diced tofu into a pan with a smidge of olive oil and let the tofu saute for about 5 minutes.
- Add in some spices for flavor and toss the diced tofu around in it.
- Then, let it cook for another 5 minutes.
- Using a spatula, toss the tofu again so the diced pieces that were not browned are on the bottom of the pan and cook without stirring for another 5 minutes.
- Fifteen minutes later, you will be rewarded with some crispy diced tofu
Of course, once tossed into this sauce, the tofu lost it’s crispiness. So, if you’d like to savoy that crispy tofu as is, then simply drizzle a bit of this sauce on top of that crispy tofu.
Serve this tasty spinach curry sauce with:
• Roti to slurp it up for a quick and light lunch,
• On the side with these spicy lentil stuffed buns,
• Thin it into a sauce and enjoy it with some mango chutney or sweet chili sauce drizzled into it,
• Make it a vegetarian meal with this zucchini curry and these carrot croquettes.
• Follow it up with these a dessert of these vegan / egg-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
Ingredients
For the Spinach Curry Sauce:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 yellow onions
- 4 large cloves garlic
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 2 stalks celery
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 3 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 jalapeno
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1 bag fresh spinach 10 oz bag
- salt and pepper to taste
- chili flakes + cilantro for garnish
For the crispy tofu:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pkg firm tofu
- 3 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- First, take the firm tofu out of the wrapping, drain it well and wrap it in 4-5 paper towels and set it aside.
- Then, peel and chop the onions and garlic. Using a knife, peel skin off the ginger and roughly chop it up as well. Wash and chop the celery as well.
- You can use 1 pan and cook the tofu first and then the spinach curry sauce. OR, you can use two pans and cook the crispy tofu in one and the spinach curry sauce in the other to cut down on time.
- If option two is what you go with, unwrap the tofu and dice it up into pieces slightly smaller than bite sized ones. Then, add olive oil to one pan and add the tofu into it. Set the heat to medium, and let the tofu cook – unstirred – for 5 minutes..
- While the tofu is cooking, add olive oil to the other pan and add in the chopped onions and saute the onions for about 15 minutes, stirring often.
- Go back to the pan with the tofu and add in the coriander and smoked paprika and toss the tofu in it until well coated. Then, leave tofu to cook for another 5 minutes over medium heat – and do not disturb it.
- Then, toss the tofu again and let cook another 5 more minutes. At this point the tofu should be crispy. If not, then cook about 2-3 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Then, turn off the heat and set pan aside to finish the spinach curry sauce.
- Going back to the pan with the onions which should be done sauteing for 15 minutes, add in the garlic and ginger and saute 3 minutes.
- Add in the celery, coriander, smoked paprika, and turmeric and stir well for 2-3 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add the onion/celery mix into a blender.
- Also add in the jalapeno, vegetable stock, and bag of spinach and blend until all ingredients are blended into a smooth creamy consistency.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour spinach curry sauce into a serving bowl and toss in the crispy tofu and toss until mixed well. OR, serve crispy tofu with the spinach curry sauce on the side or drizzled over it.
Nutrition
Love the flavours in this – anything with ginger and garlic is something I will enjoy! Beautiful.
I absolutely love a good curry and this one came out perfect. It’s definitely going on my dinner rotation!
Tofu is so good when it is crispy, served with a tasty sauce, so this is an ideal dish. The flavours sound amazing and the colour is just wonderful.
Oh, Shashi, I loved this post – for so many reasons! First because this gorgeous sauce is so very easy and so crazy-nutritious (which is exactly my favorite kind of recipe!), but also because of your awesome idea to thin this a bit and serve it as a Spinach Curry Soup! Oh – and I adore tofu but don’t cook it very often, so I really appreciated your instructions on how to get wonderfully crispy tofu – thank you so much for this fantastic recipe!
This is beyond gorgeous! The color of that sauce!! Definitely trying and will probably add a touch of basil to the sauce as I have a TON right now in the garden that needs to be used. What an amazingly delicious plant based meal!
Such amazing color and flavor to the spinach sauce – a must make!
Oh my goodness – I am swooning, Shashi!!! First of all, the color of this curry is GORGEOUS!!!! So vibrant! Secondly, holy yummy! I’m loving the flavors happening here! And that crispy tofu?! GIMME THAT! This is such a perfect meal!!!
This dish makes for a great healthy lunch that is full of flavor!
This sauce is seriously good! Tried it with my friends and now they’re asking for the recipe!
This sauce is seriously good! Tried it with my friends and now they’re asking for the recipe!
Green goodness :-)) I would lick the whole bowl clean!
Delicious flavors. And such beautiful colors. Feast for the eyes and stomach. Thanks!
The colour of this curry is amazing. So tasty too.
Delicious, Creamy and healthy. Love both the combination of Tofu and Spinach.
I am normally not a huge fan of spicy foods like curry (I am not into mostly turmeric, I believe), but this one looks delightful! Your recipe aslo made me realize that I have always used store-bought curry paste for those very few times I made curry – but it so much easy to mix the spices yourself so you would be in charge of the level of spiciness and proportions (I am talking to you turmeric! Lol) So I might reconsider and give a curry another try this fall thanks to you, Shashi! And I was also sold on this crispy tofu, it looks perfect and so delicious!
Shashi,
I can’t get enough of my eyes lavishing your awesome clicks of this spinach goddess. Hearty curry and the green vibrancy is so theraupeutic. Will keep an eye on your blog as today is my first visit and I appreciate there is so much to learn and unravel the joy of homecooking through your food journey! thanks!