Sarson Ka Saag - Mustard Greens and Spinach

 It's been a while - and I have been busy in my garden.  Weeding, mulching, planting bulbs, getting ready for Spring.  I happened to throw a handful of mustard seeds into the garden bed and lo and behold, I now have a bed of fresh, green, healthy and organic mustard leaves.  No better time than now to make it into a nice curry and have it with chappaties - or tortillas - if you do not have time.  Traditionally these greens are served with corn flour rotis called makki ki roti.  I just used tortillas.  I have also frozen half the quantity of the mustard green /spinach goodness to have another day with some paneer.  I used all the left over greens in my fridge - a handful of coriander leaves, some baby spinach and some rocket leaves.  You can use a variety of green leaves, like the tops of radishes, beetroot, etc - whatever you have along with the mustard leaves.

Washing the leaves to clean the dirt is what takes the longest time.  Once you have done that, the rest of the recipe is quick and no fuss.

Ingredients:

1 bunch mustard leaves, washed and roughly chopped

An equal quantity of spinach leaves, washed and roughly chopped

An equal quantity of mixed other leaves of your choice - I used coriander and baby spinach

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped

1 red onion, roughly chopped

2 tomatoes, sliced (I used  about 6 baby roma tomatoes)

1 green chilli, roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

salt to taste

2 heaped tablespoons cornflour for thickening

1 litre water

For tempering:

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 a chopped onion

1 or 2 red chillies

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 inch piece of thinly julienned ginger

Method:

Put all the ingredients into a stock pot and boil, covered,  for about 40 minutes till soft.  Make sure you stir the pot every now and again to ensure the leaves do not stick to the bottom of the pot.  If there is not enough water, add 250 ml at a time so that there is plenty of liquid.

When the ingredients are cooked well, use a stab blender and give it a quick whizz - you do not have to blend it too smooth, try to keep some texture.

Next add the cornflour and return to the stove stirring constantly.

When the sauce thickens to the consistency you want, turn off the flame. At this stage, you can freeze some of the sauce and use it another day.  You just have to do the tempering before serving it.

For the tempering, heat oil and add mustard seeds.  when the seeds crackle, add the rest of the ingredients and sauté for a few minutes till the onions start to go golden.

Pour this on your sauce.  Serve hot with tortillas or chappaties.