Saag

Name: Saag
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 95 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 600 g mustard greens; 300 g spinach; 4 cm piece of ginger, grated; 4 garlic cloves, chopped; 2 green chillies, split; 1 onion, chopped; 3 tbsp maize flour; 50 g butter; 1 tsp salt

Local name: ਸਾਗ

Mustard greens and spinach stewed for an hour, thickened with maize flour and lifted by ginger and green chilli.

Published on 30 May 2026·Updated on 10 September 2026

Gluten-free#mustard greens#spinach#punjab#stewed#winter

AI-generated image, not a photograph of the dish

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 75 min
Total: 95 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Easy

Method

Wash the greens in several changes of water and strip out the tough stems. Cut the leaves into wide ribbons.
Put the greens in a heavy pot with 300 ml water, the ginger, half the garlic and the chillies. Cover and cook on low heat for 45 minutes.
Crush with a masher or pulse with a stick blender. The texture stays coarse.
Slake the maize flour in 100 ml cold water, then stir it into the pot.
Cook uncovered for 25 more minutes. The saag thickens and loses its raw bite.
Melt the butter in a small pan, brown the onion and remaining garlic, then pour it over the saag.
Season with salt and serve with maize bread or rice.

The maize flour does two jobs at once: it binds the greens and rounds off the sharp edge of the mustard. For a vegan version, swap the butter for mustard oil heated to smoking point and cooled for a minute.

The techniques this recipe uses

Reduce
Uncovered, water leaves and flavour concentrates. It is done when the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

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Nutrition per serving

Calories: 192 kcal
Protein: 7 g
Fat: 11.2 g
Carbohydrate: 20.1 g
Fibre: 7.2 g

An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cornmeal doing in saag?

It does two jobs at once: it binds the crushed greens into a thick, coating dish, and it softens the sharp bitterness of the mustard leaves. Always slake it in cold water before pouring it in, or it will go lumpy.

Can I make this with spinach alone?

The result will be mild and pleasant, but it is no longer really a saag: the peppery, bitter taste of mustard greens is what defines the dish. If you cannot find them, turnip tops give a comparable bitterness.

How do I make a vegan version?

Replace the butter in the final seasoning with mustard oil heated to smoking point and left to cool for a minute, which takes off its harshness. The rest of the recipe already contains nothing from animals.

Indian vegetarian cooking, where to begin
Learn the north-south divide, the tadka technique and the spices worth buying first so you can cook Indian food without meat.
Peasant soups, feeding a table on almost nothing
What gives a country soup its body, how to thicken one without cream, and which of these recipes need adapting to do without meat.

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