Sarson Ka Saag | Punjabi food Recipes

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Sarson Ka Saag

By
Sandhya Khattri
19 Nov 2013
Sarson Ka Saag is a famous Punjabi recipe made from mustard, bathua, spinach and fenugreek leaves, usually served with makki ki roti. It requires time and earlier preparations to make this saag and outcome is healthy and tasty main course recipe. You have to clean greens earlier and normally 1 and ½ hour hours of cooking is required, hence Punjabis prepared it in bulk and it last longs upto 3-4 days.
Sarson Ka Saag is prepared all over north India in winter with slight variations in cooking methods and ingredients: In Uttar Pradesh non Punjabis cook it as a stir fry using mustard oil, some people use radish in it. Tomatoes or sour curd is used to balance the bitterness of mustard and fenugreek leaves. I prefer to use lots of tomatoes for sour flavor. In its tempering onion ,garlic, or both are used along with cumin seeds and red chili powder. You can opt ingredients according to your taste. Whenever I prepare it , initially it is served with makki ki roti and leftover saag is enjoyed with sweet rice ( sindhi tehri) a perfect combination of sweet and savoury.
This blog post reminds me of childhood days when neighbors use to share or exchange food on daily basis and we had the opportunity of tasting different foods. During our childhood days we have enjoyed this authentic Punjabi Sarson ka Saag a lot. In my neighbor there was a Punjabi family, aunty use to cook it in bulk, one day she provided us a big bowl of it saying “ Aaj sarson ka saag banaya hain, kha kar dekhna “ asking how it was prepared. That big bowl of saag tempered with desi ghee was quite sufficient for our family of 5 members. Next day her son( who was unaware of the fact we have already tasted it) came with another bowl of sarson ka saag, saying “ mummy ne sarson ka saag banaya tha aap key liyen layen hain” we were smiling and seeing each other faces , again accepted that tasty sarson ka saag. Whenever it is served fresh tempering is added, it taste enhances with due course of time.
Now coming to the recipe, Ingredients required and detailed instructions for the recipe are as follows:


Preparation Time : 30 minutes | Cooking Time : 1 hour | Serves :4
Recipe Category: Punjabi Food | Recipe Cuisine: North Indian

Ingredients:

Mustard leaves-1 bunch(400gms approx)
Bathua leaves- 1 cup(chopped)
Spinach leaves-1 cup
Fenugreek leaves-1/2 cup
Tomatoes-5
Green chillies-4-6
Turmeric powder-1/2 teaspoon
Salt –to taste
Ginger-1”piece
Maize flour-1 tablespoon
Water 1 and 1/2 cups
For tempering
Garlic-15-18 pods
Cumin seeds-2 teaspoon
Red chillipowder-1 teaspoon
Ghee or butter - 2 tablespoon

Method:

Clean all the greens chop them finely.
Wash them thoroughly using plenty of water.
Grate ginger and chop green chilies and tomatoes.
In a pressure cooker add chopped greens along with ginger, green chillies, tomatoes, salt and turmeric powder.
Pressure cook them on high flame for 4-5 whistles, after it reduce the flame and let it cook for another 15-20 minutes.

As the pressure settles down open the lid of pressure cooker and churn the boiled saag with wooden churner, alternatively you can use electric hand blender . I like the consistency obtained with wooden churner. ( saag has been transferred to other vessel just for taking pics) you can do the churning process in pressure cooker.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of maize flour in water and add it to the mashed saag, it gives a binding to greens and to some extend settles the bitterness of methi and sarson leaves.

Again place it on heat and let it cook for 35-40 minutes on medium to low flame, (if using the same pressure cooker don’t use its lid) you have to churn it 3-4 times in between.
Heat ghee in a pan, add crushed garlic pods to it as they are golden in color and cumin seed and after few seconds add red chilli powder to it, pour this tempering over sarson ka saag .

Delicious sarson ka saag is ready to serve with makki ki roti.

Notes:

Proportions of greens can be changed according to your taste.
Proper churning is must to obtain the thick consistency of saag.
After adding maize flour you have to give sufficient time to cook saag.
You can also squeeze lemon juice over it.

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