CHANA SAAG RECIPE / SPINACH CHICKPEAS CURRY

chana saag recipe

Chana Saag Recipe / Spinach Chickpeas Curry is a smooth, creamy side dish made with white chickpeas, spinach and methi leaves. Chana means chickpeas and Saag means leafy greens (spinach and methi). This is one of my favourite vegetarian side dish for chapathi or naan or jeera rice or bajra roti.  Once in a while, we go to Indian restaurant for lunch during weekend, the one dish which we like most is chana saag, the restaurant’s always have this dish in a buffet. We (me and my husband) both are foodies, love chana saag, so we want to replicate the same dish at home, we got the doubt, whether the restaurant’s chef add only spinach or they add any other additional greens, after a long discussions,  we thought of using two greens (spinach and methi) along with chickpeas, guess what, it tastes similar to restaurant style chana saag. I wanted to share the same recipe in my blog. For healthy version, we used only milk and yogurt. If you have cream, add it to the gravy instead of milk. I love to eat it with naan. Try this chana saag at home and let me know your feedback.

How to make Chana Saag Recipe / Spinach Chickpeas Curry

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CHANA SAAG RECIPE / SPINACH CHICKPEAS CURRY
 

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Chana Saag / Spinach chickpeas curry (Restaurant Style) is a creamy and delicious side dish for chapathi or roti or jeera rice.
Author:
Recipe type: side dish for chapathi
Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 2

Ingredients
  • 1 and ¼ Cup of Chickpeas (Boiled)
  • 3 Tsp of Oil
  • 1 Tsp of Cumin
  • 1 Red Chilly
  • 1 Red Onion, Finely Chopped
  • 1 Green Chilly, Finely Chopped
  • 2 Tsp of Ginger Garlic Paste
  • ½ Tsp of Red Chilly Powder
  • ½ Tsp of Turmeric Powder
  • 2 Tsp of Coriander Powder
  • ½ Tsp of Cumin Powder
  • ¼ Tsp of Garam Masala
  • 2 Tbsp of Yogurt (Curd)
  • 1 Big Tomato, Finely Chopped
  • ¼ Cup of Milk
  • 1 Tbsp of Besan Flour
  • Salt to taste
  • To Grind
  • 2 Cups of Spinach (regular or baby spinach)
  • 1 Cup of Methi Leaves (Fenugreek Leaves)
  • 1 Green Chilly

Instructions
  1. Wash both spinach and methi leaves in tap water to remove dirt and mud.
  2. Heat a pan with little water, when it comes to boil, add spinach, green chilly and methi leaves. Cover and cook it for 2 mins. Remove from heat, cool it and grind it in a mixie / blender to a coarse paste NOT TO SMOOTH. DO NOT ADD EXCESS WATER. This step is called BLANCHING.
  3. Heat a pan with oil, when it is hot, add red chilly, cumin, fry it for secs. Add onion and green chilly, fry till golden brown.
  4. Add ginger garlic paste, fry till raw smell vanishes.
  5. In a low flame, add turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder and cumin powder, fry it for 2 mins. DO NOT FRY IT IN HIGH FLAME.
  6. Add yogurt , fry it.
  7. Add tomato, fry it till soft.
  8. Add spinach paste, fry it for few secs.
  9. Add chana (boiled chickpeas), fry well with masala.
  10. Add garam masala and fry it.
  11. Add milk and 1 cup of water, simmer it and cook it for 10 mins.
  12. Finally, in a bowl add besan flour and water, mix it to form a paste. Add this to the curry, combine everything together. Gravy turns thick by now. Cook it for few mins and turn it off.
  13. Hot, delicious chana saag is ready to serve with chapathi or roti or naan or rice.

Notes
If you don’t get methi leaves in your place, just use spinach alone.
You can also use canned chickpeas to make this curry.
Adding Milk is to get creamy taste. If you have cream, you can add instead.
You can follow the same recipe by adding aloo (potato) instead of chickpeas to get aloo palak.
Adjust the number of green chilly according to your taste.

SPINACH CHICKPEAS CURRY

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Mushroom Matar Recipe / Mushroom Peas Curry

mushroom matar recipe

Mushroom Matar Recipe / Mushroom Peas Curry is a delicious side dish made with mushroom and peas cooked in a onion, tomato gravy with a rich butter taste. This is my mom’s recipe. Here I have used only butter to make this muttar mushroom. You can make with oil too instead of butter. This mushroom peas curry goes well with chapathi, naan, phulka or rice.  Try this easy dish and let me know in comment box how it turned out.

Also try my other mushroom recipes

How to make Mushroom Matar Recipe

 

mushroom peas curry

 

Mushroom Matar Recipe / Mushroom Peas Curry
 

Save Print

Prep time

Cook time

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Mushroom matar recipe / mushroom peas curry is a delicious north Indian side dish, goes well with chapathi.
Author:
Recipe type: side dish for chapathi
Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 4

Ingredients
  • 400 gms (14 oz) of mushroom
  • 2 Tbsp of Butter
  • ½ cup of Green Peas (Frozen)
  • ½ Tsp of Fennel Seeds
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 2 Tsp of Yogurt(curd)
  • 2 Heaping Tsp of Coriander – Red Chilly Powder Mix
  • 2 Pinches of Garam Masala
  • 1 Tsp of Kasuri Methi (Dried Methi Leaves)
  • Few Coriander Leaves, Chopped
  • Salt to taste
  • To Grind – 1
  • ************
  • 2 Onions
  • 5 Garlic cloves
  • ½ Inch Ginger
  • 2 Green Chilly
  • To Grind – 2
  • *************
  • 3 Tomatoes

Instructions
  1. Wash and chop the mushroom into small pieces.
  2. Heat a pan with butter, fry the mushroom till they become golden colour. Keep it aside.
  3. In a mixie, add onion, garlic cloves, ginger and green chilly), grind this along with water to a smooth paste. keep it aside.
  4. Again in the mixie, add tomato and little water, grind it to a fine paste.
  5. Heat a pan with butter, add fennel seeds, bay leaf, fry them, add ground onion paste, fry well till raw smell goes off.
  6. Add tomato paste, fry well, add curd, fry for a min.
  7. Now add coriander – red chilly powder mix, garam masala, fry well. Add mushroom, peas, saute them with masala, add water, cover and cook it for 12 – 15 mins in a slow flame.
  8. Once done, add crushed kasuri methi and cilantro, mix well and serve.

Notes
I have mentioned coriander and red chilly powder mix. It means equal amount of coriander and red chilly powder.
I have used frozen green peas, so I added directly to the dish. If you are using fresh, cook in stove top or microwave along with water before you make this dish.
To enrich the taste and retain the shape, I sauted the mushroom well in butter.
In this recipe, I didn’t use oil, I used only butter.

mushroom muttar masala

 

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Lauki Kofta Curry Recipe / Bottlegourd Kofta Curry

lauki kofta curry recipe

Lauki Kofta Curry Recipe / Bottlegourd Kofta Curry is a yummy and popular North Indian side dish curry for chapathi. This lauki ke kofta curry is made with bottle gourd. In my home, we make only kottu and stir fry with bottlegourd. But I am really surprise to know from my friend that in north India they make lot of recipes with lauki like lauki halwa, lauki thepla and the list goes on. I have seen this kofta recipe in many food magazines and newspaper. This recipe has been on my mind for ages. So when I was in India last year, I made this doodhi kofta recipe to my family, it was absolutely delicious, everyone in my family loved it. This lauki kofta recipewas in my draft, I don’t know how I forgot to post it.

Bottlegourd also known as lauki (Hindi) and Doodhi (Gujarati) is a vegetable with lot of medicinal properties like it treats heart disease and urinary infection, aids digestion and good for weight loss.

To make lauki kofta recipe, you need some preparation work. First you need to make dumplings with bottle gourd, deep fry it oil, finally cooked in onion tomato paste.

Lauki kofta itself is a very tasty appetizer or as a evening snack for tea. Try this bottlegourd kofta curry for chapathi or naan or phulka or jeera pulao.

Lauki Kofta Curry / Lauki Ki kofta / Doodhi Kofta Curry Recipe

Ingredients for Lauki Kofta Curry Recipe

Preparation Time: 30 mins Cooking Time: 30 mins  Serves: 4

To Make Kofta

  • 2 Cups of Bottle Gourd / Lauki, Grated
  • 3 Tbsp of Onion, Chopped
  • 5 Tbsp of Gram Flour
  • 1 Tbsp of Rice Flour
  • 1/2 Tsp of Red Chilly Powder
  • 1 Green Chilly
  • 1/2 Tsp of Ginger Garlic Paste
  • 1/4 Tsp of Garam Masala
  • 1/4 Tsp of Fennel Seeds
  • Salt to taste
  • Few Coriander Leaves (Chopped)
  • Oil to deep fry

To make Gravy

  • 2 Red Onions,  Chopped
  • 4 Tomatoes (Small), Chopped
  • 6 Cashews
  • 2 Green Chilies
  • 5 Garlic Cloves
  • 1/2 Inch of Ginger
  • 2 Tsp of Coriander – Red chilly powder Mix
  • 1/4 Tsp of Turmeric Powder
  • 1/2 Tsp of Garam Masala
  • 1 Tsp of Cumin
  • Pinch of Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp of Oil
  • Water and Salt as required
  • Few Coriander Leaves (Chopped)

lauki ke kofte

Method for Lauki Kofta Curry Recipe:

For Kofta 

  • Wash and grate the bottle gourd. Squeeze out the water and keep it aside for making gravy.
  • In a bowl, add grated bottle gourd and all the ingredients listed under ” To make kofta” list except oil.
  • Mix all the ingredients and make round shaped balls.
  • Heat a pan with oil, deep fry all the balls till it turns golden brown colour. Drain them on paper towel. Kofta is ready, keep it aside.

For gravy :

  • Heat a pan with oil, add onion, fry them till golden brown colour, add garlic, ginger, green chilly, cashews, fry them until raw smell vanishes, finally add tomatoes, fry them till soft and mushy. Turn off the flame, cool down for 10 mins, grind it smooth in blender. Keep it aside.
  • Heat a pan with oil, add cumin, add the ground onion tomato paste, saute it for 3 mins, add coriander – red chilly powder mix, turmeric powder, garam masala, sugar and salt, fry it for 2 mins, add lauki juice and water, mix well, simmer it for 10 mins until the gravy turns thick. Add freshly chopped coriander leaves and fried kofta balls. Turn off the flame.
  • Serve lauki ki kofta curry for chapathi or naan or phulka or jeera pulao.

Tips

  • You can deep fry the kofta like I did or shallow fry it or bake it in an oven.
  • Adjust the amount of red chilly powder and green chilly according to your taste.
  • If your kofta mixture is watery, add little more tsp of gram flour.
  • Do not leave the kofta mixture in counter top for long time, mixture turns soggy and then you cannot make balls out of it.
  • If you don’t like fennel taste, just skip it.

bottlegourd kofta curry

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