Sarson ka saag

Mustard greens cooked down in ghee with garlic, ginger and chilli, and little else.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

1 kg mustard greens, chopped
300 g spinach, chopped
100 g bathua, or more spinach
4 tablespoons maize flour
8 cloves garlic, crushed
a 5 cm piece of ginger, grated
4 green chillies, chopped
2 onions, chopped fine
100 g ghee
2 teaspoons salt
500 ml water

Method

MUSTARD GREENS COOKED DOWN IN GHEE WITH GARLIC, GINGER AND CHILLI, AND LITTLE ELSE. Its article gives the whole method in one clause and then says how open the rest is: recipes usually call FOR THE LEAVES TO BE COOKED IN OIL OR CLARIFIED BUTTER (GHEE) WITH SPICES SUCH AS GARLIC, GINGER AND CHILLI, and OTHER SPICES MAY BE USED, VARYING ACCORDING TO REGION AND TASTE. It also says outright that THERE ARE MANY RECIPES FOR THE DISH, so the proportions below are a choice.
AND IT IS A WINTER DISH FOR A REASON THE ARTICLE GIVES. Mustard IS HARVESTED IN WINTER AND SPRING, MAKING SARSON KA SAAG A FREQUENTLY SERVED WARMING DISH IN THE COOLER MONTHS. Mustard greens are bitter and tough out of season and there is no improving them.
THE SPINACH IS THERE TO SOFTEN THE MUSTARD, NOT TO REPLACE IT. Three hundred grams to a kilo. Mustard greens alone are fiercely bitter; all spinach and it is a different, duller dish.
BOIL THE GREENS FIRST, IN VERY LITTLE WATER, AND KEEP THE LIQUID. Half an hour until they collapse completely. They give out a great deal of their own water.
MASH THEM, DO NOT BLEND THEM. A wooden masher, or the end of a rolling pin, until it is coarse and green. Blended smooth it goes grey and claggy.
THE MAIZE FLOUR GOES IN AS A SLURRY AND IT IS THE THICKENER. Four tablespoons whisked into a cup of the cooking water and stirred through, then ten minutes more. This is also what makes the dish go with maize bread.
THE TEMPERING IS MADE SEPARATELY AND POURED OVER. Ghee, onion browned slowly, then garlic, ginger and chilli. A hundred grams of ghee for a kilo of greens is not a misprint: it is what carries the bitterness.
SERVE IT WITH MORE GHEE ON TOP AND A MAIZE BREAD. A lump melting into the middle of the bowl is how it is eaten, with a wedge of raw onion and jaggery beside it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes