Give me your spicy, spiced, seasoned Indian greens recipe!

September 10, 2015 12:36 PM

Every time I make Indians greens (palak, saag, saagwala, etc) at home, the results are Fine but not as flavorful or as heavily spiced as my favorite Indian restaurants' dishes. Please provide me with your tried and true Indian greens recipes!

I know there are differences between saag, palak and other dishes and am happy to make all iterations in my quest for the holy grail of greeny goodness. I'm looking for recipes in which spinach, kale, mustard/turnip greens, etc are cooked down with tomatoes, cream/yogurt, and many spices, and then pureed into a smooth goop. I live above a Middle Eastern grocery where hard-to-find spices are readily available so I feel fairly confident in my ability to procure whatever it takes to make this dishes taste more authentic.

posted by zoomorphic to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I've never been disappointed with Madhur Jaffrey's recipes. She has a million books (World Vegetarian would probably be a good one for this purpose), and many recipes can be found online for free. Making your own fresh garam masala can make a huge difference as well. Asafoetida is one of the "harder to find" spices that is used in a bunch of recipes - it smells horrible, but adds a nice onion-y flavor once it's cooked in oil.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:53 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

A couple of suggestions.

This guy has really good recipes and videos for many of them too.

Combine Spinach/Kale/Swiss Chard for more bite to the greens. Cook low and slow for a long time (like 45 minutes) and use a handheld blender to puree the whole thing.

If you are making Mustard greens Punjabi style (sarson da saag); after cooking/pureeing add Mustard Oil (from Indian Grocery stores please, Dabur preferably). It will perk up the sharpness of mustard greens.
posted by indianbadger1 at 1:29 PM on September 10, 2015

This is more of a general principal than a recipe, but Yamuna Devi, in her comprehensive Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, has a recipe for spinach saag with 3 variations using yogurt, heavy whipping cream, or cream cheese. I expected the yogurt version to be thin and unsatisfyingly "healthy", but the heavy cream was surprisingly disappointing. Turns out the secret to luscious spiced greens is a big ol' block of Philly cream cheese!

So my advice to you is to try some recipes which look promising, but substitute cream cheese for the yogurt or cream (you may need to add some extra liquid to get a nice consistency). About half a standard 8 oz package of regular (not low fat) cream cheese per recipe of greens is a good place to start. Put it in at the end, when the yogurt or cream would be added, and stir until it melts completely. Serve. Swoon. Your bagels may have to go naked from now on.
posted by Quietgal at 8:16 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

The secret to reproducing restaurant results in the home, always and everywhere: more fat, more salt.
posted by flabdablet at 9:23 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm half Indian and cook home-style Punjabi style food. I can never get my Saag or Dahl to taste like the matriarchs of the family... so I add some vegetable stock to it. Just enough to brighten the flavour. I agree that salt is what you're missing. Also, most of my family still cook with ghee - I don't. I believe this lack of fat is also what makes the taste less amazing.
posted by shazzam! at 10:24 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm a little bit partial to Julie Sahni's recipe for Saag Paneer. All the better if you can be bothered to make your own paneer...
posted by ZipRibbons at 1:56 AM on September 11, 2015

This recipe from Blazing Hot Wok has become our family's go-to for Saag Panir. The author specifically addresses some of your concerns.
posted by werkzeuger at 11:11 AM on September 11, 2015