Priya Krishna's Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer Is My Favorite New Weeknight Dinner of the Year

I ate the Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer from Priya Krishna's new cookbook Indian-ish many times before I finally cooked it myself this year. I ate saag feta when the Test Kitchen was testing some of Priya’s recipes to go in the April issue of BA. Then I ate saag feta when Priya made it on camera in the kitchen. And then I kept craving it. Saag paneer has always been a favorite takeout order for me, but Priya's version is especially bright and fresh and complex in flavor. The fact that it's made with feta instead of paneer makes it brinier than the classic, and oh so appealing to this particular feta lover.

I added the ingredients for this recipe to my grocery cart a few times since I first tasted it, but always ended up turning that feta and spinach into other dinners (and spinach smoothies) throughout the week. The book sat on my coffee table with a Post-it note sticking its yellow tongue out at me from page 83, slowing getting covered with more new cookbooks as the months progressed. And yet I kept thinking about Priya's saag.

So finally, in the last month of the year, as I was craving a vegetarian dinner to warm me up and transport me somewhere different on a particularly dreary between-holiday night, I reached for Priya's book. A brief setback occurred when I realized my jar of cumin seeds had bugs in it (sorry, it's true!), but luckily there was another fresh jar in the drawer, and I started cooking while a pot of rice steamed on the stove. After so much procrastination, you’d think this recipe would be hard. It’s not.

The recipe started teaching me things right away: As I toasted two cardamom pods and a small mountain of coriander seeds, I realized this is why this dish tastes so good and bright. Going forward, I will no longer be shy with coriander seeds. As I added onion, garlic, and ginger then wilted a bigger mountain of spinach into the skillet, I realized this recipe is wonderfully simple—the kind of dish I'll quickly learn to make from memory. I added the lime juice and a chopped serrano pepper, and dumped the mixture into my blender, zip zap, then tipped the bright green sauce back into the skillet.

After thinning it with a little water, I nestled in cubes of feta to warm. I only had French feta on hand, which softens a bit more than Priya's preferred Greek feta. I'll go Greek next time! (There's another reason, too: Greece inspired Priya's mom to create this version of saag paneer in the first place—they took a family vacation there when Priya was a kiddo, and the whole family got hooked on feta.) As I spooned hot ghee with toasted cumin seeds and red chile powder over the top of the finished dish, this recipe also reminded me how much I love ghee, and that I should cook with it more often. This dish is ideal for a chilly winter evening, when you need something green and fresh that's also warm and cozy—not to mention delightfully quick and easy to make.

Don't wait like I did. Because this Indian(ish) dish is is likely to become your new favorite weeknight dinner, too.

Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer

Originally Appeared on Epicurious