Sabzi (Afghan Spinach - Vegan)

This is a companion post to the Qabuli Palao recipe. While my assignment for my Plant-Based Chef Professional Certification program was a rice and lentil dish, I wanted lots of greens to go with the Qabuli Palao. Sabzi is a popular Afghan stewed spinach dish with bold flavors that are a wonderful match with the Qabuli Palao.

Sabzi is often served with basmati rice or naan bread. A dollop of your favorite plain vegan yogurt gives a nice balance to the texture of the spinach.

The recipe I originally used called for three pounds of frozen chopped spinach. Since frozen spinach is not an ingredient I can easily get, I went to the local market and bought four bunches of fresh spinach. I didn’t weigh the washed and trimmed spinach, but I’m guessing it was about one pound. That’s a lot of spinach–it filled two large bowls while raw. The spinach in our Guatemalan markets is quite hearty. If you’re using baby spinach, you might want to increase the amount of spinach as it will cook waaaay down.

You probably won’t be able to fit all the spinach in the pan at one time. I add as much as I can fit in the pan, let it cook down, then add more. The cooked spinach will take about 1/10th the space of the raw spinach.