Great recipe and much appreciated. But note: whole coriander remains tough and unpleasant in the saag unless you have a really high power blender. I blended this in my ninja blender for a long time and couldn't break down the coriander seeds. It left my saag texture filled with really unpleasant "woody" debris. I recommend powdered coriander unless you've got a great vitamix or similar.
Had the same issue. Actually just bought a vitamix yesterday for this recipe and many others lol. Also I ground the cumin seeds in a mortar & pestle before adding to the chonk since it removes the woody spice texture and releases more flavor!
for fellow foragers - you can also use fresh nettles for your greens! edit: though not the most flavourful. there's tons of spring green foraging options depending on where you are. where I am (Wales) we also have wild garlic, garlic mustard, and many others! explore your surroundings!
There's an Indian restaurant in Midtown called Mint, which serves a namesake saag paneer made with mint leaves added to the spinach. I could see adding mint leaves to your recipe along with the feta cheese.
Just put this together with a giant clamshell of Costco baby spinach I was overly confident I could get through and some chickpeas that have been begging for death in my cupboard for months. This coconut milk saag came together SO FAST and was lick-the-dish-clean amazing. Can't wait for leftovers for lunch!
Love it! My favorite dish is saag paneer so this is right up my alley. I'm always frustrated trying to get everything out of the blender. I will try your Mom's trick.
Saw this video on Saturday and made it for Sunday breakfast. Delicious! Husband loved it. I’m ordering cardamom pods and asafetida and adding it to my rotation
It’s seriously a true delight and so nice viewing Priyas wonderful works apart from Bon appetit. The lovely energy she provides motivates me to continue cooking.
Priya. It is so good. Didn't have mustard greens so I did a Spinach/Kale 70/30 mix and love it. Can't wait to try the mustard greens! Now to finish the pot...I mean bowl
Beautiful, simple and obviously delicious with a really nice vibrant complimentary color contrast and it’s slightly healthier than many versions. Ghee is quite abundantly rich and there are times where a different and less heavy flavor is complimentary. The dish is vegan correct? Only thing I would say is that if you don’t have a very high quality blender or processor that you do either grind the spices or remove them. Ordinary cheap mixers don’t always do the job.
Honestly gunna try this with carrot greens this year. I had a whole pile of it last year from only a few carrots I managed to grow and just let them die in the fridge sadly. Going to come back here and make this instead next time.
Just a couple of thoughts. It’s probably better to add the lemon at the end after it slightly cooled. Actually, the vitamin C in the lemon does not stand up well to heat and lemon juice can become bitter when heated. Also, typically one does not blend whole cardamom pods. Because the actual pod has a pretty hard covering, you would just blend what is inside the cardamom seed. Good recipe though
I used to make a version of this with whatever fresh early greens the garden provided. I did not know the term saag at the time, just palak. And we did not have access to paneer, so I used tofu. We called it NPNP. For non palak non paneer. I am going to make some with overwintered chard and fresh baby bok choy.
Yeah... I'd like that A LOT! Recently got a major kitchen appliance and am making a kale-coconut thing, but I like all kinds of Saag from the take-out place, so I can adjust with this kind of guidance.
It's tasty! I will definitely grind the coriander and cardamom beforehand next time. My blender did not fully grind the seeds. I have tons of mustard and arugula in the garden so this is a great way to use them. Loved the tofu texture too. Also, I did not mind the whole toasted cumin seeds at the end. Coriander is just a bit woody I guess. I will make it again. Thank you!
This looks great, but I have had lots of success with dark, densely cooked-down greens. Maybe I could withhold putting greens in until the end, but I thought that was primarily for cosmetic purposes.
I’ve made this twice, and I love it, except for the coriander seeds that don’t get blended in. I don’t care for crunching on the seeds. I’ll put them through a mortar and pestle first next time.
I made this dish a few months ago. (I actually made every dish on the New York Times "Most Popular Recipes of 2023," there were 50 of them, and yes I have pictures, lol.) The coconut milk and coconut oil were BRILLIANT. I used half mustard greens and half spinach, which was great. However, if you puree the saag "into a chunky paste" as you suggest, the spices all remain whole. At least they do in my processor. Combined with the toasted cumin seeds in the end, the finished texture is...crunchy? Crispy? I actually was fine with it that way. But my husband couldn't handle that texture. I'd like to try doing this recipe again, maybe with grinding the spices first? Or is that a bad idea?
a lot of blenders won't grind down the spices like she can do in hers (which is either a VitaMix, or something of that level/price). You could spend that kinda money, or just get a separate spice grinder (and *DO NOT USE* your existing coffee grinder). (Obviously if you're gonna do that, dry-roast the whole spices & dried peppers, then grind them (and since it's a grinder, probably in small portions.. in the old days they'd use a mortar & pestle after all)
@@machinshin2253 Well, I guess I'm in the old days then, lol, because I use a mortar and pestle for grinding spices. It's fine. My concern is how doing that would effect the recipe. Like do amounts change because ground spices release more of their flavors than whole spices do? Or would the cook time be different if I'm using ground rather than whole spices? I absolutely could just do it like she does with my own food processor, I think, if I just processed it LONGER. But then it wouldn't be the "chunky paste" she recommends, it would be a puree. Not sure which approach I should take here. I'm going to make this again Friday (yes I plan that far in advance, lol), so I have 5 days to decide!
