Kafuliकफुली
⏱ Prep 20m🍳 Cook 35m🍽 Serves 4🌿 Vegan
Video: Get Curried (YouTube)
Kafuli is a slow-cooked green curry from Uttarakhand, traditionally made with spinach and fresh fenugreek leaves, thickened with a small amount of rice flour rather than cream or oil. It is Garhwali and Kumaoni home cooking at its simplest — unhurried, minimal in fat, and deeply nourishing. The slight bitterness of methi balances the earthiness of spinach, and a sharp mustard oil tempering at the end lifts the whole dish.
📍 Make it in Plano
This recipe is the same everywhere — but where you buy the ingredients and eat the dish is local to you.
Finding Desi spots near Plano…
Ingredients
- ▪spinach (palak), washed300g (about 6 cups loosely packed)
- ▪fresh fenugreek leaves (methi)1 cup, packed
- ▪garlic cloves4
- ▪ginger½-inch piece
- ▪green chili2
- ▪rice flour (for thickening)1½ tbsp
- ▪water1 cup
- ▪saltto taste
- For the tempering
- ▪mustard oil2 tsp
- ▪cumin seeds½ tsp
- ▪dried red chili1
- ▪garlic, thinly sliced2 cloves
🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
- Fresh fenugreek leaves (methi) give kafuli its characteristic bitterness; look for them at South Asian grocery stores. If unavailable, use all spinach and add ½ tsp dried kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) to approximate the flavor.
- Rice flour as a thickener is a distinctly Uttarakhand technique — avoid substituting cornstarch, which changes the texture significantly. Fine rice flour is sold in most Asian grocery stores worldwide.
- Mustard oil is important here; outside India it can be found in South Asian stores. If truly unavailable, use a small amount of sesame oil mixed with a neutral cooking oil as a loose substitute.
Method
- 1Blanch the spinach and fenugreek leaves in a large pot of boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain immediately and transfer to cold water to preserve the color. Drain again and squeeze out excess water.
- 2Blend the blanched greens with ginger, green chili, the 4 garlic cloves, and a few tablespoons of water into a smooth puree.
- 3Mix the rice flour with ¼ cup cold water to make a smooth slurry with no lumps.
- 4Pour the green puree into a heavy pot. Add the remaining water and bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat, stirring frequently.
- 5Stir in the rice flour slurry gradually, mixing well. The curry will thicken as it cooks. Season with salt.
- 6Simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the curry reaches a creamy, pourable consistency and the raw flour taste is gone.
- 7For the tempering: heat mustard oil in a small pan until it just begins to smoke. Reduce heat, add cumin seeds, the dried red chili, and sliced garlic. Sizzle for 30-45 seconds until the garlic is golden.
- 8Pour the tempering over the kafuli, stir once, and serve immediately with steamed rice or mandua roti.
A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.