Red spinach leaves stry fry or Cheera thoran

If I like any vegetable from my childhood it is this. Back in my native place , every house has a vegetable garden. Doesn’t matter how big or small it is. You will at least have a small curry leaves tree. My mom had a garden which has trees/plants of drum sticks, bitter gourd, snake gourd, small aubergine, long beans, plantains, red & green spinach leaves (amaranth), yam, green chilies , curry leaves etc the list goes on… With all these in home you could get vegetables which can used to make vegetarian platter meals for 10-15 people…It could be surprising for few. But it is a common thing in Kerala

Hardly we used to buy vegetables from outside and if even if we buy those will be onions, carrots, potatoes, cabbage and cauliflower.

In all those vegetables, red spinach was my only favorite.. I remember my mom going to the vegetable garden after her breakfast and plucking some fresh spinach leaves.. and I will be given small tasks like cleaning them. It is a must to check and clean these leaves. Because there can be small worms or bugs under the leaves. So we have to check each leaves. Some of them may have flowers and/or roots. We have to discard those as well. Once it is cleaned well, we wash them several times in water.

Finely chopping these leaves without a chopping board is a skill and you can reach that perfection only after several years practice.. I have seen my granny, mom and aunts doing it so well.  I couldn’t do it till today 🙂

I will try to update post the pics once I have them

You need

• Red spinach leaves/ Cheera ( Amaranth leaves) – 4 cups finely chopped
• Onion– 1/4 cup chopped
• Salt to taste
• Coconut Oil – 2 tbsp
• Mustard Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Dry red chili – 1
• Curry leaves of a spring (It is optional..I hardly use curry leaves for leafy stir fries )

To grind

• Grated Coconut – 1/2 Cup
• Garlic – 1 small clove
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Green Chilies – 1 Slit
• Turmeric – A pinch

You have to

• Coarsely ground the ingredients mentioned under “To grind”. No need to add water
• Heat oil in a pan or clay pot.
• Add broken red chili and mustard seeds.
• Once the mustard popup, add the chopped spinach, salt and sliced onions.
• Saute well for 1-2 min.
• Make a small “well” in the mixture and add the coconut mixture and cover it with the spinach mixture.
• Cover the pan and cook on low flame for around 5-8 minutes. Do not add water.
• Remove the lid and stir fry continuously for another 1-2 minutes in high flame so that the water dries up.
• Serve with rice or chappathi.

I like to have this with rice, normal thenga chammandi or unakka chemeen chammandi, lemon pickle and curd

Yumm!!!