Saag
Created by tahir, Monday, 27 March 2006
Description
A peasant dish from the Punjab using whatever greens are available. Mustard leaves, turnip & radish tops all add a peppery slightly bitter flavour, any cabbagey leaf will give a slightly sweeter flavour, the one component that\'s always there is the spinach and chillies, the ingredients list is stuff that can be used
Ingredients
At a glance
Cuisine
Cooking Method
Type
Main Ingredient
Preparation Time
Cooking Time
Budget
Seasonality
Course
- Cabbage
- Brocolli
- Mustard leaves
- Brussells
- Spinach
- Fat Hen (it grows as a weed in our garden, but is available from Indian greengrocers, it\'s called Bathu)
- Orach
- Pak Choi
- Kale
- Turnip tops
- Carrot tops
- Radish tops
- Radish pods
- Leeks
- Fenugreek (Methi) this adds a\"curry powder\" kind of taste
- Chick pea leaves
- Non leaf things that can be used:
- Carrotts
- Red Lentils
- Brown Lentils
Method/steps
- If you\'re not using leeks then use onion and a few cloves of garlic, if you\'re using green chillis add them whole with the chopped veg, if you\'re using chilli powder you can add it later. Chop all the ingredients quite roughly place in a pan with a little water and bring to a boil, if you\'re using lentils then add them now, bring down to a simmer and leave with the lid on stirring occasionally until the veg are quite mushy and most of the water\'s evaporated, if you\'ve added lentils make sure they\'re cooked, add salt and chilli powder. Remove from the pan and liquidise or if you\'ve got one of those hand blenders with the blades just do it in the pan, texture is to your own preference, you can leave it with some bits and pieces still visible or you can turn it into a puree.
- You may have noticed we\'ve used no fat at all in this recipe, till now.
- Chop finely some ginger and garlic, in a small pan heat some butter until it\'s almost burning, add the ginger and garlic, cook until browned, add to the pan. This is called a \"tarka\" and although it\'s not essential this is what makes a good dhal or saag, as do the following:
- Stir in some finely chopped coriander just before serving, and a great big dollop of butter in each bowl.
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