Simple Gluten Free Kitchen

Saag with Gai Lan (How to make Saag in Canada)

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Saag is quintessential Punjabi leafy greens stew prepared through out cold weather. It may not look appetizing to some but take my word the taste will pleasantly surprise you. It is the one dish that defines winter cooking in a Punjabi Kitchen. As a child I never liked saag, not many kids like it when they are young (because they eat with their eyes). Once I  was at the house of my mother’s friend and she offered me saag. To make a good impression and not wanting to hurt her feelings I asked her to give me just a little bit. Even though she put extra butter on mine I tried it hesitantly. I was totally surprised at the luscious texture and creamy sweetness of something that does not look appetizing. Before I knew it, I had finished my bowl and had some more.

 

 

Saag is generic name for cooked greens, unless specified as sarson ka saag (mustard greens), palak ka saag ( spinach greens). You will be surprised no restaurant here has saag on their menu, if they do, chances are they are fooling the  public with palak ka saag (spinach greens only). Although, it can be made with any dark leafy greens,  traditionally, it is made with a mix of sarson (mustard greens), methi (fresh fenugreek leaves), choulai (amaranth leaves) and a milder tasting spinach is added to reduce the bitterness of other greens. It is often prepared in huge quantity, partly because it keeps well in the fridge for a week and tastes better after the second or third tadka.

 

 

It is a bit laborious work to clean and chop all the greens and then cook (still easy, don’t worry but the satisfaction you gain after the meal is everything). Mustard stems have tough skin that need to be peeled, which along  with other greens are washed thoroughly and chopped fine. I use a pressure cooker to cook saag, it lessens the cooking time while still retaining the goodness and vitamins. If you don’t have one use a big pot and gently simmer until the greens are soft. Close to the end of cooking, saag is pressed with a madhani {( butter churner or wooden hand blender)picture below} and while doing that maize flour is added to give a thick silky texture. Saag is never made smooth but the coarse texture never appealed me, so I prefer using handy gadgets like food processor or immersion blender to do the job of madhani.

 

 

the pressure cooker you see in the picture is 3 quarts

 

Since mustard greens are hard to find here (in Richmond BC, canada), I make saag with what ever bitter greens I find, rapini, gai lan, kale, collard greens. Today I am preparing saag with Gai lan, it is from the plant family of broccoli and Kale. Its high in beta carotene and contains folate, Vitamin E, iron and calcium. Similar to mustard its thick stems are peeled to remove tough outer layer, it  has slightly bitter flavor which is subdued by the presence of mild tasting spinach. If you can not get hold of gai lan use rapini instead.

A tempering of sauteed ginger, garlic and onion (optional) is added at the end to a small portion of saag that has to be served. The remainder can be frozen or stored in fridge for up to  a week and all you need to refresh is to reheat with a tadka.  The golden hue makki ki roti  is a perfect match to the deep green saag with some butter on top!

Enjoy a punjabi meal!

 

 

GAI LAN SAAG

Serves: 6

You will need a 5 quarts pressure cooker ( bigger is good) to make this dish. If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can cook using a regular pot, ensure that you add sufficient water to cook the greens meltingly tender for about 2 -3 hours.

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet (1 kg) gai lan
  • 3-4 bunch ( 750-1kg cleaned) spinach
  • 1/3 cup maize (yellow corn) flour
  • 8-10 hot green chili peppers
  • 3/4″ piece ginger
  • 1/2 cup water to cook greens +more

Tadka/ Tempering:

  • 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1″ piece of ginger, finely chopped
  • 4 tbsp chopped onion (optional)
  • 2 tbsp butter/1 tbsp oil or 3 tbsp desi ghee

To serve:

Method:

  1. Clean and peel the tough skin from gai lan stems. Chop the greens (leaves, stems and buds) along with green chillies and ginger. Put them in a pressure cooker with 1/2 cup water (push them down with a metal spoon).
  2. Close pressure cooker and heat it on high. Once the pressure develops (you will hear the whistle), reduce heat to medium and cook under pressure.
  3. After 20 minutes. turn off the heat and let the pressure come down. ( this will take about 10 minutes).
  4. Open the lid, put the maize flour and using a madhani, press and mash the greens. Add hot water as well. Alternately, coarsely process the greens in a food processor.
  5. Transfer back the greens to pressure cooker ( if food processor was used) and place it on heat. Now add maize flour and hot water (about 1/3 cup). Give it a good stir ensuring there are no lumps.
  6. Close the lid and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat so that the flour is no longer raw and is well blended with the greens.
  7. Meanwhile in a small pan heat oil/ butter or ghee. Add chopped ginger and garlic followed by onions (if using) and cook till it starts to brown and the smell spread across the kitchen.
  8. Add the tadka and salt to the cooked saag. Serve hot with makki/ maize flour chapatti,  radish halves and pieces of raw or pickled ginger.

 

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I think I was different as a kid, though I wont eat most of the veggies, i loved all types of greens. My mom used to prepare delicious stir fry and sometime mashed green too. Gailan is new to me. Haven’t tried yet. This dish looks simple and delicious and very healthy too..

    Reply

    • You were a good kid, then. I use Gailan only because it is more easily available where I live and cheaper, too. It cooks faster, give more creamy texture and taste like mustard. You can also use rapini in place of gai lan.

      Reply

    • I checked my bottle of pesto, the color looks the same but it has lot of oil on top. May be because of the color and butter, you are right it might look pesto to some. Anyway both are edible and damn delicious.

      Reply

  3. That seems to be right for me, I chose to eat food which looked good and there were mnay foood that I never tried. After I got married I tried everything at my inlaws house without giving a second thought. I felt I deprived myself all these years of good food. Your picture making me want to scoop with makki roti.

    Reply

  5. It looked like pesto to me at a glance but this is more interesting than pesto! I have never seen it before. Bookmarking, you have inspired me to try this! Thank you Balvinder.

    Reply

  7. hi balvinder- too bad i cant try this recipe, dont have the vital greens like gai lan, mustard and fenugreek leaves 🙂
    the dish looks very much like our own mixture of greens – ( specific and not just any greens) and it is very flavorful too..
    the only non green added is prawn (optional) and eaten with rice.
    your roti also makes me hungry.- wanna have my breakfast now 🙂

    Reply

  8. Hi Balvinder, interesting recipe. Look delicious but I dare not use pressure cooker even thou I have one sitting in my kitchen. Hesitate to use the pressure cooker because of the whistle sound. LOL Your rotis look yummylicious.

    I love gai lan soup, just boil with slice ginger, garlic and chicken breast meat until the gail lan is very soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Good for diet or light lunch with little bit of rice.

    Best regards.

    Reply

    • You should not be scared of using pressure cooker. I never let my cooker to whistle because my poor dog is scared of any shrieking sound and it won’t whistle if you reduce the heat just before it comes to full pressure (you will just know 😉
      Gai lan soup sounds interesting , will try sometime.
      Enjoy your time off!

      Reply

  9. Nice! I have tasted it but never cooked it. Like to try it now as this post is inspiring. I am sure it would be a good combination with maze chapatti. I normally, microwave the greens uncovered, with a sprinkle of water to retain their colour. Very inviting pictures!

    Reply

    • Oh this recipe of saag is easy that’s why I have given the pressure cooker way. I do microwave my greens sometime for stir fry’s but they don’t taste the same as this saag does.

      Reply

  10. I make a chicken saag with silverbeet/chard and strangely its one of my kids favourite dishes, although if I present saag on its own they usually rebel.

    Reply

  11. I love gai lan ! I usually stir fry it with some minced garlic and ginger . Your saag looks like pesto 😀 Such an interesting dish , this saag . Very appetizing photos as well 🙂

    Reply

  12. I like saag, but then I love greens. This looks delicious–I love that you’ve presented it as a pressure cooker recipe, because we are always looking for recipes for ours.

    Reply

  16. So happy to see this recipe as Gailan is one of the most readily available vegetables here in China. My kids actually love it and looking for different ways to change it up a bit. Thanks for the inspiration. Take care, BAM

    Reply

  17. I’m open to try new things and I’d love to dip chapati in this. Sometimes most delicious things may not look “tasty” but I believe your words. I have so many dishes that taste amazing but not always look perfect – sadly. However, if you didn’t say anything I didn’t even think this doesn’t have appetizing look. It does look delicious! 😉

    Reply

  18. I have never heard of this before but at first glance it looked delicious to me and I thought it was like pesto. I love anything green so I’m sure I would love this and of course adding a bit of butter always makes everything better.

    Reply

  20. I’ve never cooked greens in a pressure cooker and want to try it next time! I love this Punjabi meal and its absolutely perfect for these winter months!

    Reply

  22. Thanks for posting this. I make saag pretty often because we all love it, including the kids. I often make it with a combination of different greens, depending on what is available, but my favorite is collard greens. They have a more tender juicy stem than kale and the flavor is like mustard greens combined with kale but milder and sweeter than either of those.

    I just got an instant pot (electric pressure cooker) so you have inspired me try making it in that. Reading your recipe, I noticed that you use a food processor to make the texture smoother. My suggestion is to use a stick blender and puree it right in the pot! That way you don’t need to mess around with moving it back and forth and you don’t need to get the food processor dirty. I love my stick blender because it takes up so little space in the kitchen and I use it for lots of different soups and purees and sauces.

    Reply

    • Glad you make saag, its a delicious dish. I too make it with whatever available but in India it is mostly made with mustard greens as it is found in abundance in winters. i don’t have a powerful stick blender that’s why had to use food processor.
      Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply

  25. Satsriakal Balwinder ji. Loved your recipe. I am from Kolkata, West Bengal,India. Can you please tell me any indian/hindi/punjabi/bengali equivalent name for “Gai Lan”. In all shops, they are offering me “Sarson da Saag” instead of “Gai Lan”. Is there any indian substitute for “Gai Lan”?

    thanks and Regards,
    S.B.

    Reply

    • Sat Sri akal Ji, Thank you for loving my recipe.
      I don’t know its Indian equivalent Just make the saag with sarson. I use gailan because I don’t get sarson here.

      Reply

  26. Saag and makai ki roti looks so inviting.. here in US I make with kale and spinach and mustard green if available.. is gai same as kale or it’s a different variety??

    Reply

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