Spring Greens And Broccoli Saag
A seasonal and delicious take on a traditional saag recipe. Fresh, spicy and utterly delicious – you’ll love it!
I love Calabrese broccoli, but it’s often relegated to being boiled and steamed into a bland mess. In this recipe I use it as the base for this ingenious and flavourful saag sauce. Whilst definitely not a traditional saag, these spicy greens are packed full of flavour.
This spring greens recipe is great because it uses the whole vegetable. Blending the spring greens and broccoli not only creates a wonderfully fresh saag sauce, but it means you don’t have to discard the hard stems on either veggie. Plus it speeds up the whole chopping process. Wins all round.
If you’re looking for a more traditional spicy greens recipe, my chickpea and spinach saag is a very simple and quick saag recipe. Or try my spinach and kale saag recipe which is a little bit more involved, but has buckets of flavour.
Tips
We’ve used spring greens and Calabrese broccoli in this recipe, but saag is a wonderfully versatile dish. You can shove basically any green you want into the sauce and it’ll come out tasting delicious. It’s the perfect way to use up past-their-best greens hiding out in your fridge.
When to eat
Spring greens are available just as they sound – in the spring and up until about June. However, after this time they’re replaced by other seasonal greens. Summer greens or summer cabbages takeover where spring greens aren’t available. So use them in replacement when you can’t find the spring greens.
Calabrese broccoli is available in some form or another throughout the year. It’s an extremely hardy plant and can be overwintered, meaning that it grows throughout the season. If you’re looking for more seasonal variants, why not use purple sprouting broccoli in the spring, and tenderstem in the peak summer.
Spring Greens And Broccoli Saag
This meal is around 90% less polluting than the average UK meal.
Eating this recipe will save around 2.64 KG CO2e per person.
That’s equivalent to the emissions produced driving 21.84 KM in a modern car.
How do I calculate this?Ingredients
- 600 g Potatoes (chopped into 2cm cubes)
- 200 g Spring Greens (loosely chopped into thick ribbons)
- 1 head Calabrese Broccoli (thinly sliced into 1/2cm thick peices)
- 700 ml Vegetable Stock
- 2 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil
- 2 Medium Green Finger Chillies (thinly sliced)
- 2 Medium Onions (finely diced)
- 4 Cloves Garlic (finely diced)
- 20 g Fresh Ginger (peeled and finely diced)
- 2 Teaspoons Cumin Seeds
- 2 Teaspoons Coriander Seeds
- 1 Teaspoon Ground Turmeric
- 1 (400g) Can Chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 15 g Fresh Coriander (finely chopped)
Instructions
- First cook the potatoes. Place them into a large saucepan and cover with water. Boil for 8-10 minutes until just cooked. Drain and reserve.
- In a separate pan combine the chopped spring greens, broccoli and stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes until the broccoli has started to soften and the greens have wilted.
- Pour the stock and greens into a food processor and whizz until smooth. Reserve until needed.
- Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Toss in the cumin and coriander seeds and toast for about a minute until they begin to release their fragrance.
- Tip in the chopped chillies, onion, garlic and ginger. Fry for 4-5 minutes until the onion is soft and is starting to take a little colour.
- Pour in the cooked potatoes, chickpeas and turmeric. Combine evenly with the cooking veggies and spices. Then pour in the blended greens. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and season to taste. Finish the saag with the chopped fresh coriander sprinkled over the top.