Tambdi bhaji recipe with step by step pics. This is a simple and healthy Goan preparation of a dry dish made with red amaranth leaves or red spinach leaves, onions, coconut and herbs. It makes for a healthy veggie dish that can be paired with roti or paratha or steamed rice or served as a side dish with dal rice.
The word ‘tambdi’ means red in Goan/Konkani language. ‘bhaji’ means vegetables or a dish made from veggies. So either ways, red amaranth is called as tambdi bhaji and so is the dish made with these reddish hued leaves also called as tambdi bhaji.
This one dish used to feature in our menu back home. Then and even now I am fond of this onion & fresh coconut laced red amaranth recipe. I can just have this sauteed amaranth leaves with plain steamed rice or pav/bread rolls or chapatis. This also would be my tiffin box lunch with some chapatis.
In Goa, we get red amaranth abundantly and hence this dish is commonly made there. When I get red amaranth, I usually make this recipe or red amaranth sambar. Not yet ventured into making anything with red amaranth.
On occasions, I make the same recipe with green amaranth. This recipe is vegan as well as gluten free. You can easily scale the recipe to make a bigger or smaller batch.
This healthy tambdi bhaji can be served as a side dish with a dal and rice combination. You can also just have it plain with steamed rice or chapatis or bread.
How to make Tambdi Bhaji
1. Pluck the amaranth leaves with the tender stems. Then rinse these very well in water and then drain the water.
I used 250 grams amaranth leaves, which yielded about 4.5 cups of finely chopped amaranth.
2. Chop them finely and keep them aside.
3. In a pan or kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. You can neutral flavored oil.
4. Add ⅓ cup chopped onions, 1 teaspoon chopped green chilies and 1 teaspoon chopped garlic.
5. Stir well and saute till the onions have softened and become translucent.
6. Add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder. Stir.
7. Then add the chopped amaranth leaves.
8. Stir and mix very well. Add salt according to taste.
9. Stir and mix again.
10. Cover the pan or kadai with a lid and let the amaranth leaves cook on a low heat.
11. Do check at intervals and if the moisture or water has dried up or if the leaves are sticking to the pan, add ¼ to ⅓ cup water. Stir, cover the pan and continue to cook.
12. When the amaranth leaves are softened and cooked, add ⅓ cup of grated coconut. It takes about 10 to 12 minutes on a low heat for the amaranth leaves to cook completely.
13. Stir again and mix very well.
14. Cover again and simmer on a low heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
15. Switch off the heat. There should be no water in the dish. If there is any water, then evaporate the extra water by simmering without the lid. Check the taste and add more salt if required.
16. Serve tambdi bhaji hot or warm as a side dish with dal-rice or with chapatis or bread. Try to finish the bhaji as soon as you can. Since coconut is added to the dish.
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Tambdi Bhaji | Red Spinach Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 grams amaranth leaves or 4.5 to 5 cups chopped amaranth leaves (red spinach leaves)
- 3 to 4 small garlic cloves (lahsun) – chopped
- 1 medium onion or 50 grams onions or 1/3 cup chopped onions
- 1/3 cup grated coconut
- 1 or 2 green chilies (hari mirch) – chopped
- 2 tablespoon oil
- ¼ to 1/3 cup water or as required
- salt as required
Instructions
Preparation for tambdi bhaji
- Pluck the amaranth leaves with the tender stems. Then rinse these very well in water and then drain.
- Chop them finely and keep aside. Also finely chop the onions, garlic and green chilies.
Making tambdi bhaji
- In a pan or kadai, heat 2 tbsp oil.
- Add the chopped onions, chopped green chilies and chopped garlic.
- Stir well and saute till the onions have softened and become translucent.
- Add ¼ tsp turmeric powder and stir.
- Then add the chopped amaranth leaves.
- Stir very well. Add salt. Stir again.
- Cover the pan or kadai with a lid and let the amaranth leaves cook on a low flame.
- Do check at intervals and if the moisture or water has dried up or if the leaves are sticking to the pan, add ¼ to 1/3 cup water. Stir, cover the pan and continue to cook.
- When the amaranth leaves are softened and cooked, add 1/3 cup grated coconut. It takes about 10 to 12 minutes on a low flame for the amaranth leaves to cook completely.
- Stir very well. Cover again and simmer on a low flame for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Switch off the flame. There should be no water in the dish. If there is any water, then evaporate the extra water by simmering without the lid. Check the taste and add more salt if required.
- Serve tambdi bhaji as a side dish with dal-rice or with chapatis or bread.
Notes
- This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled.
This Tambdi Bhaji post from the blog archives first published in February 2015 has been updated and republished on December 2022.
Tried this for the first time yesterday with green amaranth leaves.very simple,healthy and tasty.will try with the red variety next time.
Thanks to this site I am able to go out of my comfort zone and try recipes which I have never tried before.
thank you so much winnie. every day you take out some of your time and leave a feedback or review on the recipes you have made.
i really appreciate and value it. thanks again and god bless you.
regards
dassana
Hello Dasana, ( and Amit …) Long time no see. I got some Shen Choy Jr., from the local chinese store in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It looked suspiciously like our Thamdi bhajji, so I took a chance and bought it. At home, I checked on Google and Wikipedia, and found out it was it was a variety of Red Amaranth. I also found out that there are over 60 varieties of Amaranth, each with a specific latin Linnaeus name ! The 4 S.E. asian varieties are Amaranthus cruentus, Amaranthus blitum, Amaranthus dubius ( really !) and Amaranthus tricolor. ( Maybe the last one is the indian favorite ;-D) Lol. ). I had to buy a minimum of three pounds ( about ~ 1.5 kilo ) but after I cooked it, it became rather meager – very little. This was sad because I wanted to share this rare vegetable dish with a friend who is ailing with a serious illness, but I will just have to give him all that was left over, after we had our little share.
I made some modifications with your otherwise, excellent recipe – I added 2 extra cups of water, so we could use it like a kal-va-ney (curry) with boiled rice. I also used some 8 tbs. of ‘left over’ coconut green chutney, so I added a spooful of sugar to neutralize the sourness. Also I added a lot more garlic and onions because that’s the way we like it. It came out very well, and the ‘little’ wife is also delighted (thank god !) , and we both said a small prayer for you, for your advice. Be good, keep well.
By the way, your website ALWAYS comes up first, in Google, for ANY indian vegetarian recipe …. are you related to Sundar Pichai, the current president of Google ?? ;-D)) Just a joke.
shen joy jr is a new name for us 🙂 with leafy veggies, they always become less when cooked. liked the way you made the variations and good that you liked the bhaji. thanks to both of you for your prayers. google likes us (just joking). and we are not related to sundar pichai 🙂
Hey,
I’m from Karwar near Goa and this is easily available vegetable there, all season. We call it thamdi bhaji. I would love to try it your way. All your recipes are very good. I tried few of them and the instructions with high definition images makes them more easy to learn and try.Thanks for sharing. It would be great if you could share some non-veg recipes as well.
welcome nilesh. glad to know this. we only cook vegetarian food at home. so won’t be able to post non-veg recipes.
Dassana..
Am from kerala ,there we get this leaves in plenty so called ‘ cheere’ and so does we have recipes including this nutritious plant with toordal coconut mix and even aviyal with its thick stems including..glad that u included a recipe with this lady awaiting more..
thanks gopika for this info. i know about this kerala style recipe but never made at home. i will definitely try and add in the blog.
I find these leaves at my indian grocery store labeled as just ‘red leaves’. I never purchased them since I didn’t know what the leaves were or what to do with them.
Thanks for this recipe. Now i will give these red amaranth leaves a try
welcome sharmilee. glad to know that now you can make use of them. these red amaranth leaves are very healthy and nutritious.
Hi I am from Karnataka . In mangalore we call this leaves as harive. We make sambar out of this by adding coconut n other masala. It will goes very wel with brown n white rice.
thanks ash for sharing the info.
I made this sabzi yesterday. I am happy to learn such healthy dishes. Thanks for posting such healthy recipes. Keep up the good work !!
welcome sharmilee. thanks for your kind words.