Saag story – This is the happy Saag story.
Traditionally thickened with corn flour or makkai atta, greens mashed with a traditional masher called mathni and slow cooked on an earthen pot for hours – the quintessential dish from Punjab, the Saag!
The usual greens used in this dish are mustard(Sarson) leaves which is why it is also called sarson ka saag. These are bitter hence the greens are mixed with more type of green such as spinach, methi and a local type of leaf called bathua.
I have however tried a “restauranty” version of the saag and modernized the recipe to suit me. We love the greens cooked this way and the kids slurp it regardless of the “green”. Win win situation for me!
Use this recipe as a base to make several other dishes like the famous palak paneer or palak gosht or palak chicken. Mix this with some cooked daal and you have palak daal too. This recipe can be frozen. I like to pour it into ice cube trays (without the final tempering of garlic) and then store the individual cubes in a ziplock bag. Makes life so easy when you want some “green” on the side, just add it to the pan, let it melt away and add any other accompaniments to it. Check notes in the bottom of my recipe for how to use the saag base for palak paneer and palak chicken.
This saag recipe is completely vegan and vegetarian as it stands now, but depending on what you add you can change the flavours. The final tempering can be done using ghee to give it a rich taste. You could also add some cream to mellow the sharpness of the greens, personally I prefer it without any cream for the true taste of the greens.
I prefer to blanch the leaves in turmeric water for a minute or two as it helps to retain the vibrant green colour. Once it is out of the hot water, immediately drain it out and shock it by putting the leaves in ice-cold water. Stops the cooking process immediately and seals in the green colour too. It is an additional and optional step that you could get away without doing if you are pressed for time, but the flavour and visual treat from blanching the leaves is worthwhile the extra effort. I also love garlic and add it at almost every step of the recipe🙈, but you can choose to just puree it with the greens and eliminate it from the other steps.
Serve warm with hot rotis or parathas. I made phulkas or the softer rotis that are puffed up on the flame directly, with some sprouted moth beans on the side. A vegetarian treat for me!
Saag recipe – Palak Methi saag
Ingredients
- 1 bunch spinach leaves i used baby spinach leaves
- 1 bunch methi/fenugreek leaves
- 1 handful coriander leaves
- 1 small sized onion finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger
- 4-5 green chillies
- 10-12 garlic cloves 4-5 whole, rest halved or thinly sliced
- 1 + 1/2 tbsp red chilli powder
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
- 3-4 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala optional
- water for blanching greens
Instructions
- Place a pot of water with 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and bring to boil. Add the washed spinach and methi leaves and blanch(cook in boiling water) for 2 minutes
- Drain immediately and add the leaves to a pot of ice cold water
- Puree the leaves in a blender along with the garlic, ginger, green chilli and coriander leaves
- In a pan, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds letting it sizzle
- Add the pureed paste into the pan and stir to mix. Do this on a low to medium flame
- Tip in the spices (red chilli powder, turmeric powder) and salt and let it combine
- Add the finely sliced onions to the pan and let the mix cook until you see oil floating on top
- Adjust the consistency by adding some water to the pan. Add some more cumin powder and a touch of garam masala. Simmer this for couple of minutes and switch off
- As a final flourish, heat some oil in a small pan. Add few more cumin seeds and sliced garlic cloves. When the garlic starts to crisp up. switch off the flame and immediately add a tsp of red chilli powder. Pour this flavoured oil on top of the saag.
Notes
- For Palak paneer – add the paneer cubes to the pan before adding the water. Let the green masala/saag coat the paneer cubes for a minute or two and then add the water to make a thick gravy.
- For Palak Chicken – Cook the chicken separately, by frying onions and tomatoes in oil with some ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder. When the chicken is half cooked, add the fried green paste to the chicken mix.
- You can choose to avoid the garlic and use it only while blending/pureeing the greens.
