Spinach Garlic Balls

Spinach is such a great leafy vegetable, rendering itself suitable for versatile dishes... I was intrigued by Vardhini's event on Spinach and garlic. I have tasted a spinach and corn roll in Chinese restaurants and wanted to recreate something like that at home. I browsed for suitable recipes and came across innumerable quick starter-snack dishes with spinach. There was a good recipe for spinach-garlic balls, with a lot of western ingredients (thyme, parsley, parmesan cheese etc). I did not even have the patience to look these up and figure out their availability. I just took the basic principle and added our own spices.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bunch

Garlic paste -  1 tbsp
Powdered bread crumbs - 1 cup
Eggs - 2

Processed Cheese - 2 tbsp, Melted
Butter - 2 tbsp, Melted

Spices:
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp (optional)
Amchoor (dry Mango powder) - 1 pinch (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (350 F).
Wash and clean the spinach leaves and chop into small pieces.
Beat the eggs lightly.
In a large bowl, add the eggs and spices and whisk well. Add the melted butter, cheese and garlic paste and stir until combined.
Mix in the chopped spinach. Add the powdered bread crumbs and make a paste. The consistency should be such that you can make slightly firm, 1-inch balls of this paste.
Otherwise add in some more bread crumbs.

Make small 1-inch balls of this paste and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe makes 14 such spinach-garlic balls. 

Verdict: This was relished by my daughter and my hubby. It was a hit as a tea snack :)

I plan to try the Eggless version next time with mashed potatoes.

This was supposed to be my entry to Vardhini's event. But I missed the deadline :)