Saag Chana (Curried chickpeas and spinach)

Are you looking to make some delicious curry with chickpeas? Then make this easy, vegan, gluten-free Chana Saag (Indian-style curried chickpeas and spinach) and enjoy your delicious meal.

Contents

• What is Chana saag
• Ingredients
• Stovetop Instructions
• Instant pot Instructions
• Recipe Notes
• Serving suggestions
• Storage
• Recipe

What is Chana saag

Chana Saag is an Indian curry with chickpeas cooked in a base of leafy greens. In India, Saag means green leafy curry. Chana means chickpeas. So saag chana or chana saag is an Indian curry with chickpeas and leafy greens.

This healthy and delicious vegan, gluten-free curry goes well with basmati rice, naan bread, or any Indian flatbread.

Ingredients

• Chickpeas - I cooked chickpeas using an Instant pot and used it in this recipe. You can check my Instant pot chickpeas recipe to cook soaked or dry chickpeas at home easily. To use canned chickpeas to make chana saag curry, drain and rinse them with clean water to remove extra salt.
• Greens - I used only spinach in this recipe. But you could use any of these leafy greens - Mustard leaves, radish leaves, kale, fenugreek leaves, swiss chard, collard greens, baby spinach. And the final taste of saag will depend on the greens used. If you use more mustard greens, radish, fenugreek leaves, and kale, curry will be pungent and take more time to cook. 
• Spices - Like all my recipes, this recipe also uses minimal Indian spices like - ground cumin, coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala powder.

Stovetop Instructions

Make saag sauce

• Heat a saute pan or skillet over medium heat, and once it is hot, add oil, finely chopped onions, ginger, garlic, and sliced green chili (use jalapeno for less spicy version).

• Over medium heat, cook the onion mixture till it turns translucent. I cooked for around 5 minutes.

• Add turmeric powder, ground cumin, coriander powder, garam masala powder, and salt to this onion mixture.

• Mix everything well and make sure that it isn't burnt. If the pan is too hot, add a tablespoon of water to avoid burning the spices.

• Now goes the finely chopped spinach and cook it on medium to high flame for about 5 to 6 minutes.

• If you are using other greens, cook it for more time.
• By this time, spinach will be wilted and cooked entirely, and you will not see any water in it. Keep this spinach mixture aside and let it cool down a bit.

• Once it cools down, make a coarse or smooth paste as you like.

Make Chana Saag 

• Heat a deep-bottomed pan or a dutch oven and oil and chopped tomatoes. And let the tomatoes cook for a couple of minutes.

• Now add cooked chickpeas and red chili powder. Add half a cup of water and let chickpeas simmer on low heat for 4 to 5 minutes.

• To this chickpeas mixture, add the saag sauce and mix everything well. Adjust the water according to your liking and let it simmer for 3 or 4 minutes.

• Traditional saag will use maize flour to get the thick porridge-like consistency (Check recipe notes to use maize flour). Here I used cashew cream and cooked it for a couple more minutes.

• Delicious and healthy chana saag is ready to serve with basmati rice or naan bread. 

Instant pot Instructions

• Start the Instant pot in saute mode. Once it is hot, add oil, finely chopped onions, ginger, garlic, and sliced green chili. Let it cook for a couple of minutes.
• Add finely chopped tomatoes and spice powders - turmeric powder, ground cumin, coriander powder, garam masala powder, red chili powder, and salt. Mix everything well.
• Now add cooked chickpeas and water. Mix it well and deglaze the pot if required.
• Stop the instant pot saute mode and close it with its lid.
• Start the Instant pot in manual or pressure cook mode and cook it for 5 minutes on high pressure.
• Once the Instant pot finishes cooking, wait for 5 minutes and manually release the pressure.
• Start the Instant pot again in saute mode and add finely chopped greens. I used only spinach, but you can use any greens.
• If using only spinach, cook it for 2 to 3 minutes. If using other greens like mustard or kale, cook it for around 5 minutes or until they are cooked thoroughly. And once done, switch off the Instant pot.
• Instant pot Chana Saag is ready to serve! 

Recipe Notes

• The traditional saag recipe uses maize flour for the thickness of the curry. 
• If you want to use maize flour, take a tablespoon of maize flour and make a slurry using water. Add this maize flour slurry along with saag sauce and simmer it for 10 minutes. 
• Add more water if needed and stir in between to prevent the saag from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• If you are using maize flour, we need to cook it for more time as the maize flour takes time to cook.
• You can also use cashew cream or coconut cream to thicken this chickpea spinach curry. I used cashew cream in this recipe, and the taste of saag will vary accordingly.
• Once you take the dish out of the heat, you can add a splash of lemon juice. 
• I sometimes add ½ teaspoon of dry mango powder to make the saag a little tangy.

• This recipe yields semi-dry consistency curry. You can add more water or coconut milk to adjust the consistency.
• Usually, restaurants use cream, so I used cashew cream here to make it vegan. You can use coconut cream as well.
• Make sure to use spinach also, even if using other greens. Otherwise, curry might be bitter or pungent.
• You can use frozen spinach also to make this curried chickpeas and spinach. Just replace fresh spinach with frozen spinach.
• Instead of fresh tomatoes, you can use the same quantity of tomato puree. Or you can use tomato paste (a tablespoon as it is more concentrated).

Serving suggestions

I love to pair it with basmati rice. But it goes very well with naan bread or any Indian flatbread like roti or paratha.
You can also use this as a sandwich spread or taco filling.

Storage

Leftover saag tastes well as all flavors infuse. You can store the chana saag in the refrigerator for a day or two. To use it for more days, freeze the curry and use it within three months.

I prefer to make saag sauce in large quantities, freeze it in portion sizes, and make this curry when needed.

As you are here, you will like my other vegetarian curry recipes.

Lentil coconut curry - Earthy brown lentil curry with spinach and coconut milk
Black bean curry - Easy and creamy black bean curry with staple ingredients.
Kidney beans curry - Easy and flavorful beans curry with seasonal veggies.

And are you looking to use the can of chickpeas? Then try these recipes!

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Recipe