North Indian
Sarson da Saag with Makki di Roti
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Sarson da Saag with Makki di Roti is North Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
The quantities follow this count.
How to cook it
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Wash the mustard greens and spinach in several changes of water, strip off the thick lower stems of the sarson, and chop both roughly.
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Pressure cook the greens with the green chilies, half the ginger, the garlic, 1 tsp salt and 1.5 cups water for 3 whistles, about 15 minutes, then let the pressure drop on its own.
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Mash the greens hard with a wooden mathani, or blend them to a coarse puree, then sprinkle in 3 tbsp of the maize flour and simmer on low heat 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often, until the saag is thick and glossy and no longer tastes raw. The long simmer is what makes it.
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Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pan, fry the chopped onion and the rest of the ginger, finely chopped, until golden, add the red chili powder for a few seconds and pour this tadka over the saag.
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For the rotis, mix the remaining maize flour with 1/4 tsp salt and knead it with warm water, a little at a time, for 3 to 4 minutes until it holds together. Maize dough has no stretch, so knead each portion again just before shaping it.
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Pat a ball out between wet palms, or on a sheet of plastic, into a thick round about 5 inches across and slide it onto a hot tawa. Cook about 2 minutes a side, smear with ghee and press until both sides carry brown spots.
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Bring the saag to the table with a lump of white butter melting on each bowl and the makki rotis hot from the tawa, with jaggery and sliced radish on the side if you like.
Serve it with
A North Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Sarson da Saag with Makki di Roti, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The cooked vegetable
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The protein alongside
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What it is eaten with
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The sharp little thing
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Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Sarson da Saag with Makki di Roti carries dairy. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | Yes | Lauki Chana Dal (Bottle Gourd and Lentils) |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Estimated, per serving
- Calories
- 460 kcal
- Protein
- 10 g
- Carbs
- 62 g
- Fat
- 22 g
- Fiber
- 10 g
- Sugar
- 3 g
- Sodium
- 830 mg
- Saturated fat
- 12 g
Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.
When to cook it
Sarson da Saag with Makki di Roti takes about 90 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a proper project. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. It is at its best in winter, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.
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Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.