Do you love Saag curry in Indian restaurants? Then, you can make it easily at home using this easy saag recipe. And use this Indian spiced spinach as a base curry for making many variations like Vegan Saag Paneer, Saag Chana, and Saag aloo.
Contents
What is Saag
Saag is a simple curry with leafy vegetables and basic Indian spices. In India, saag is typically prepared with a combination of leafy greens like mustard, radish, spinach, and fenugreek.
But you could use any leafy greens to make the saag. The typical restaurant-style saag will have spinach and cream.
Main ingredients
- Greens: I have used only spinach in this recipe as it is readily available and tastes delicious. But you could use any of these leafy greens - Mustard leaves, radish leaves, kale, fenugreek leaves, swiss chard, collard greens. And the final taste of saag will depend on the greens used. If you use more mustard greens, radish, and kale, saag will be pungent.
- Spices: Like many Indian curries, this recipe uses ground coriander, garam masala, ground cumin, and turmeric powder. Usually, we use green chili for spiciness and avoid red chili powder for keeping the curry vibrant green color.
- Aromatics: Onion, garlic, and ginger add so much flavor to this curry. You can avoid garlic or ginger if you do not have them handy.
Instructions
- Heat a saute pan, and once it is hot, add oil, finely chopped onions, finely chopped ginger, chopped garlic, and sliced green chili (use jalapeno for a 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, ground coriander, 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, you can add a tablespoon of water to avoid burning the spices.
- I used spinach leaves along with their tender stalks. So I added finely chopped stalks first and cooked them for around 2 to 3 minutes.
- Now goes the finely chopped spinach and cook it on high flame for about 5 to 6 minutes. If using other greens like mustard, cook it for more time. Make sure that greens are cooked completely.
- By this time, spinach will be wilted and cooked entirely, and you will not see any water in it. Indian-style spinach is ready, and you can serve this with this texture.
- Restuarant-style Indian saag will be smoother in texture, so blend this cooked spinach mixture using a handheld blender or a standalone blender. If using a regular blender, let the spinach mixture cool down before blending it.
Recipe notes
- You can use a potato masher to mash the saag for the desired consistency. If you chop the spinach very finely, you need not use a blender to make this saag.
- Usually, restaurants use heavy cream to make this curry rich. You can add cashew cream at the end for the vegan version and cook it for around 3 to 4 minutes.
- This base curry is vegan and gluten-free. And you can serve it as a side dish or main curry.
- Just before serving, add a teaspoon or two of lemon juice.
How to serve this Saag
Usually, this Indian saag is served with Indian flatbread like Roti, Naan bread, and cornbread (called makki roti).
Apart from these traditional ways, I like to serve it as a sandwich filling, tortilla filling, or side dish with cooked quinoa, millet, or rice.
Different variations
This Indian Saag is a base curry, and we can use this to make many delicious variations.
- Saag Chana (Spinach with Chickpeas): To this saag dish, add cooked chickpeas, little water and cook it further for about 5 to 10 minutes. If required, season the curry, and the delicious and protein-rich Saag chickpeas is ready to serve.
- Saag Paneer (Spinach with Indian cheese): While this spinach curry is getting cooked, heat another pan and roast the paneer cubes using a teaspoon of oil. Add the saag base to the paneer, a couple of tablespoons of water, and simmer it for 5 minutes. For the restaurant-style rich curry, you can add fresh cream or cashew cream and simmer it for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Saag Tofu (Spinach and tofu): Pan roast the firm tofu cubes for 5 to 10 minutes and add the saag curry base. Add around ¼ cup of water and simmer this curry for 4 to 5 minutes. Tofu will absorb the flavors from this saag, and the delicious Saag tofu is ready to serve.
- Saag Aloo (Spinach and potato): Add cooked potato cubes and ¼ cup water to this Indian saag base curry and simmer it for 5 minutes. The potato will absorb the flavors, and Saag aloo is ready to serve with Naan bread or rice.
While making these variations, you can add more garam masala powder and green chili to make it spicier. While the curry is simmering, add water to adjust the consistency of the curry.
Storage
This basic Indian spiced spinach curry keeps well for about 12 hours at room temperature. You can store it in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days and freeze it for three months.
I prefer freezing this curry base in ¼ cup portion sizes and taking the required quantity when needed. Other than just reheating this curry and serving it, you can make the above curry variations and serve it with rice, quinoa, millet, and naan bread.
FAQ
You can use spinach, swiss chard, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, radish leaves, beetroot leaves, and fenugreek leaves.
Yes, you can use frozen spinach to make this Indian spiced spinach.
Yes, I use spinach stalks also in this curry. Make sure to chop them finely or roughly grind the curry to adjust its consistency.
Saag is the name of the curry that uses any green leafy veggies. We can make the saag using only spinach as well.
Usually, restaurants add cream to any saag curry to make it rice. But you can omit it entirely or use cashew cream or coconut cream.
Palak paneer is another Indian curry with only spinach and Indian cottage cheese.
As you are here, you will like other Indian curries
Have you tried this recipe? Provide your feedback by giving a star rating and/or leaving comments. And don't forget to share the recipe with others on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter.
Recipe
Indian Saag
Ingredients
- 12 ounces spinach
- ½ cup onion chopped
- 2 green chili or jalapeno
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic grated
- 1 teaspoon ginger grated
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat a saute pan, and once it is hot, add oil, finely chopped onions, finely chopped ginger, chopped garlic, and sliced green chili (use jalapeno for a less spicy version).
- On a medium flame, cook the onion mixture till it turns translucent. I cooked for around 5 minutes.
- Add turmeric powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, 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, you can add a tablespoon of water to avoid burning the spices.
- I used spinach leaves along with their tender stalks. So I added finely chopped stalks first and cooked them for around 2 to 3 minutes.
- Now goes the finely chopped spinach and cook it on high flame for about 5 to 6 minutes.
- By this time, spinach will be wilted and cooked entirely, and you will not see any water in it. Indian-style spinach is ready, and you can serve this with this texture.
- Restuarant-style Indian saag will be smoother in texture, so blend this cooked spinach mixture using a handheld blender or a standalone blender. If using a regular blender, let the spinach mixture cool down before blending it.
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