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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Pancha Khadya Modak Recipe / Khirapat modak

panchakhadyamodak recipe

Pancha Khadya Modak Recipe / khirapat modak is a famous sweet modak(dumpling) from Maharashtra (India). Panchakhadya is a special neivedyam that is offered to Lord Ganesha on Ganesh Chaturti.  Khirapat contains 5 main ingredients starting with kha in Marathi letter – Khobra(coconut), Kharik(dates), khaskhas(poppy seeds), khismis(raisins), khadisakhar(rock sugar). Mixture of these 5 ingredients combined together gives you this scrumptious modak. Try this pancha khadya modak for Ganesh Chaturti and let me know how you liked it.

How to make Pancha Khadya Modak

 

Pancha Khadya Modak Recipe / Easy Modak Recipe
 

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Pancha Khadya Modak Recipe / khirapat modak is a famous sweet modak from Maharashtra. Panchakhadya is a special neivedyam that’s offered to Lord Ganesha on Ganesh Chaturti.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 3

Ingredients
  • For outer covering
  • ⅓ Cup of Rice Flour
  • Water as required
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 Tsp of Ghee
  • For Filling
  • ¼ Cup of Grated Coconut
  • 1 Tbsp of Raisins
  • 3 Tsp of Powdered Rock Candy (kalkandu)
  • 5 Dates
  • 1 Tsp of Khus Khus (Poppy seeds)
  • Few Cashews, Chopped

Instructions
  1. Dry roast the coconut until colour changes and keep it aside.
  2. Dry roast the poppy seeds in a medium flame for few mins and keep it aside.
  3. Remove seeds from dates, soak it in hot water for few mins and grind them coarsely.
  4. In a mixie, powder the sugar and keep it aside.
  5. Finally in mixie, add all the ingredients and grind it together. Khirapat filling is ready.
  6. For the outer covering dough, bring the water to boil along with ghee. In a bowl, add rice flour and salt, add water slowly and keep mixing with spatula.
  7. Let it cool it for 2 mins, it will be warm by now, start kneading to form a smooth dough. Keep covered to prevent from drying.
  8. Make a equally sized balls out of the dough. Grease your hand with oil, take a ball and flatten it with your hand. Add a tsp of filling in the centre. Fold it and seal it in the centre. Repeat the same process for the rest of the dough.
  9. Steam the modak in a idly pan or steamer for 10 mins.
  10. Pancha Khadya Modak Recipe / khirapat modak is ready for neivedhyam.

Notes
Add any nuts of your choice.
If you don’t have rock candy, replace it with regular sugar.
If you want, you can also add a pinch of cardamom powder or nutmeg powder.

Tags: Pancha Khadya Modak , Panch Khadya Modak Recipe, khirapat modak, how to make khirapat modak at home, how to make Panch Khadya Modak Recipe at home, khirapat, easy modak recipe, maharstrain style modak ganesh chaturthi recipes 2015, vinayagar chaturthi recipes 2015.



Easy Kesar Shrikhand Recipe / Sweetened Yogurt with Saffron & Nuts

easy kesar shrikhand recipe

Easy Kesar Elachi Shrikand Recipe / Sweetened Yogurt with Saffron & Nuts is a rich, creamy Indian style flavored yogurt. It is a popular dessert in Gujarat and Maharastrian cuisine. I love all kinds of milk based Indian sweets, this shrikhand is one of my favorite. The cardamom and saffron adds a wonderful flavors and nuts on top adds a nice crunch to this dessert. To make a shrikhand at home is very simple, you have to use hung / strain the curd using muslin cloth to separate the whey, they are then mixed with sugar, cardamom, saffron. It is kept in the fridge and served chill with nuts and fruits. If you love mango, just blend the mango pulp with shrikhand. They are called Amarkhand. You can serve the shrikhand plain or with poori (puffed Indian bread). Make this easy, no cook dessert for coming janmashtami (krishna jayanthi) and enjoy with your family.

How to make Easy Kesar Shrikand Recipe / Sweetened Yogurt with Saffron & Nuts

Easy Kesar Shrikhand Recipe / Sweetened Yogurt with Saffron & Nuts
 

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Easy kesar shrikhand recipe / Sweetened Yogurt with Saffron, cardamom & nuts is a rich, creamy popular Indian dessert. Serve them plain or with poori or chapathi.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 1

Ingredients
  • ½ Cup of Thick Hung curd or Greek Yogurt from 1 cup of curd
  • 1.5 Tbsp of White Sugar, I used Turbinado Sugar
  • 7-10 Saffrons
  • 10 Almonds, Finely Chopped
  • 3 Cashews, Powdered
  • Pinch of Cardamom Powder
  • ½ Tbsp of Milk

Instructions
  1. Take homemade curd (yogurt) or store bought curd. Always use fresh one, don’t use sour curd.
  2. Put the muslin or cheese cloth over the strainer. Add curd (yogurt) over muslin cloth and allow it to drain for 3 hrs. Place the bowl under the strainer to remove the whey. Use this whey to knead chapathi dough.
  3. In a mixing bowl, add yogurt (curd), sugar, cardamom powder and powdered cashews. Mix well with whisk until it turns creamy and smooth.
  4. Add saffron to the hot milk, leave it for 5 mins.
  5. Add the saffron milk to the yogurt, mix well.
  6. Finally garnish it with saffron and nuts of your choice like almonds, pistachios.
  7. Refrigerate it for an hour before serving.
  8. Creamy, yummy kesar shrikhand is ready to serve.

Notes
I used turbinado sugar. You can use powdered white sugar too.
Adjust the amount of sugar as per to your taste.
Add any nuts of your choice like pistachios or walnuts or almonds.
If you have Greek yogurt, you can use it directly instead of using homemade hung yogurt.
If you don’t have saffron, you can skip it and make it plain shrikhand.
Do not use sour curd while making shrikhand.

easy shrikhand recipe

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