Chaulai ka Saag - Amaranth Leaves

A dish that is easy to prepare and is something special although it is a common leaf vegetable.

How to make Chaulai ka Saag?

The most time-consuming work when making this dish is picking the leaves off the stems. It is good if you have a helper for this work. You don’t need to however pick off every single leaf. The thin and flexible stems are fully fine to cook along with the leaves, so if you just take out the bigger ones, it is fully fine. If there are already flowers at the top of the plant, take them out, too.

Wash the leaves and spread them on a big plate to dry. You can also use a kitchen towel to press the water out of them. Cut them into small pieces.

Heat up the oil in a wok. Once it is hot, add the cumin and the turmeric and stir. The spices can thus develop their aroma but you need to take care not to let them burn to the wok. Once they are roasted a bit, add the amaranth leaves and mix them well with the spices. Sprinkle the salt on top, mix one more and put a lid onto your wok to let it cook.

In the next five minutes you need to stir from time to time. When you do, you will notice that the amaranth is now cooking in its own water. To use the time while the leaf vegetable is getting soft, you can prepare the tomatoes. You need to wash them, cut them roughly into pieces and simply blend them to puree in your blender.

After about five minutes of cooking you can check whether the small stems of the leaves which you have added are soft. If they are, you can take the lid off. Add the tomato puree into the wok and stir once more time.

It will take about another five minutes now for the tomatoes to cook into your dish. You are done as soon as it does not look anymore like amaranth in tomato sauce but rather like amaranth with tomatoes in it.

At the very end you add the coriander powder and, if you feel like it, you can add some fresh coriander, too.

Enjoy!