Sarson Ka Saag

Sarson ka Saag is a very nutritious curry which is popular in Punjab. Sarson in Hindi means mustard and Saag means Greens. 

Before I start with the details, let me tell you that this dish/ curry needs a lot of patience to prepare. If you are in a hurry, it is not the right time to prepare this curry. The steps are simple, but time taking. So make sure you have a free time of 1- 1.5 hrs before you start with cooking this curry.

The curry is made of many green leaves. So usually the quantity becomes more and hence 

you can store it in refrigerator after taking aside for one meal. Alternatively, you can use a portion of the leaves instead of using the entire bunch. For first timers, the second option is better. In the below recipe I've used the entire bunch. 

Ingredients:

• Mustard leaves / Sarson - 1 bunch
• Spinach leaves / Palak - 1/2 bunch
• Chenopodium leaves/ Bathua - 1/2 bunch 

(I have used 3 different leaves here. But you can use more, like radish (muli) leaves, fenugreek (methi) leaves)

• Vegetables
• Tomatoes - 3
• Onion - 2
• Radish - 1 (optional)
• Green chilies 2
• Maize flour
• Red chilly powder
• Asafoetida powder/ Hing
• Garlic cloves
• Ginger 
• Salt
• Edible Oil

Mustard Leaves/ Sarson

Chenopodium / Bathua

Spinach / Palak

Maize Flour

For garnishing:

• Chopped onions
• Jeera/ Cumin seeds
• Crushed garlic
• Garam masala
• Ghee/ Butter

Preparation:

• Clean all the leaves thoroughly. This can be time consuming. One way to make this process easier is to take a big bowl full of water and put all the leaves into it (after removing the roots and rinsing once). Now using both hands you can clean the leaves thoroughly. Cleaning leaves in running water is time consuming.
• Take a pressure cooker and put all the leaves, chopped vegetables, ginger, garlic and green chilies. As an alternative, you can also cook it in microwave. Cook it so that the leaves and vegetables become soft.
• Once the vegetables are cooked, they need to be ground in a mixer grinder or a food processor. Be very careful on this step as the vegetables are quite hot. So it is good to cool down the vegetables and then grind. Grinding hot vegetables can be dangerous with steam coming out while grinding.
• Add maize flour to the cooked vegetables/ leaves while grinding. This will make the curry quite thick.
• Take a cooking pan and boil the ground mixture. Also add red chilly powder, salt, asafoetida powder to the mix. Garam masala powder could be added too (optional).
• In 5 mins, the curry will start bubbling. Now transfer it to a vessel.

Garnishing:

• Take a frying pan and pour ghee. Wait till it melts.
• Add cumin seeds and wait till it crackles.
• Add the chopped onions, garlic and fry thoroughly till onion becomes dark brown.
• Turn off the flame and add a pinch of garam masala.

Add the garnishing to the curry. I have heard that Sarson ka Saag tastes best with Makki ki roti. I haven't tried it yet. I have tasted with phulka/ roti and it was delicious. Serve hot to get the best of it!