Layered with flavour, but simple to prepare, this Indian-inspired spinach dish comes together in about 30 minutes. This is a versatile dish that can be served as a main or a side. You can make it vegan or vegetarian or add chicken to it. If you are vegetarian or omnivore, you can also fortify it with paneer, which is fresh Indian cheese made from whole milk. However you choose make it, Saag pairs perfectly with something starchy such as rice or naan bread.
TL;DR Summary of Making Spicy Indian Spinach (Saag)

The Ingredients

This Indian-Spiced Spinach starts with frozen spinach. You could also use fresh spinach if you like, you’ll just need to steam and drain it. You’ll need about 10 cups of fresh spinach.
This spinach is made oh-so-flavourful with a full-on bouquet of aromatics, starting with onion, ginger, and garlic. The dry spices are coriander, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes for a bit of heat. You can leave out the pepper flakes if you like spice but not heat. Finally, you need a little bit of neutral oil for frying and your choice of plain yogurt for finishing the dish.
Variations
You can vary this recipe by adding paneer, which is a fresh Indian cheese made with whole milk. You can purchase store-bought paneer or make your own. Most large grocery stores or Indian groceries will carry paneer.
Although it’s not traditional, you can also stir in cooked cubed chicken.

Making Indian-Spiced Spinach: The Process
This dish starts with frozen spinach. Cook the spinach according to the package instructions, then drain and then set aside.

Next, add the oil to the frying pan and fry the onions, ginger, and garlic for about 4-5 minutes until starting to brown slightly. Add in all of the dry spices and continue frying for about 15 more minutes. You’ll need to stir this every few minutes. The mixture will get dryer as you fry it. Add a tablespoon of water whenever you need to, to prevent the mixture from burning or sticking to the pan. After you’ve finished cooking the spice mix, stir in the spinach and yogurt and cook until heated through. Almost done! The last step is to blend the spinach. You can blend it right in the pot using a hand blender (immersion blender) or transfer it to a blender.
If you want to make either of the variations – with paneer or with chicken, you just add these in at the end and heat through.

Once you’ve blended your spinach give it a taste and see if it needs salt. Adding salt enhances all flavours, so it’s always a good place to start when you’re seasoning food.

Adapted From
This recipe was adapted from Aarti Sequeira’s Paneer: Spinach with Indian Cheese recipe.
Making this for Mixed Diets?
This Indian-Spiced Spinach is super easy to make vegan or vegetarian, or even both. If you’re making both versions, the process and ingredients are identical until the very end, where you add the yogurt and heat through. You can also simplify the cooking by omitting the yogurt and allowing dinners to add their own.
If you are making one of the variations, with paneer or with chicken, you also add those ingredients at the end and just heat through.

Indian-Spiced Spinach (Saag)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons ginger, minced
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 300 grams frozen spinach
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- salt to taste
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt {dairy or non-dairy, do not use sweetened yogurt}
Vegetarian Variation
- 1/2 cup paneer, per person
Meat-eater Variation
- 1 cup cooked chicken, per person
Instructions
- Defrost and cook the spinach according to the package directions. Set aside
- Fry the onions, ginger, and garlic in the oil over medium heat, for about 4 or 5 minutes or until lightly browning.
- Add the dry spices and continue frying fo another 15 minutes. You will need to stir this every few minutes or so. The mixture will get dryer as you fry it. Add a tablespoon of water when it gets too dry.
- Add the spinach and yogurt and heat through.
- Blend until the spinach is your desired consistency. Taste, and add salt as needed. Salt will bring out all of the flavours.
For variations
- Stir in the paneer and/or chicken and heat through.
Notes
Adapted From
This recipe was adapted from Aarti Sequeira’s Paneer: Spinach with Indian Cheese recipe.Using Fresh Spinach
You can make this recipe with fresh spinach as well. You will need about 10 cups of spinach. Steam it, then drain and chop it and set aside.Storage and Reheating
This will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge. Reheat it over low heat and add water as needed to thin it to your desired consistency.Nutritional Information
Nutritional information is an estimate only and is based on using dairy yogurt, and without the variations.Nutrition
Other Vegetable Dishes
- Roasted Rainbow Carrots with Ginger Brown Butter (Vegan or Vegetarian)
- Potato Salad for Pickle Lovers (Vegan or Vegetarian)
- Zucchini and Green Pea Fritters (Vegan or Vegetarian)
- Vegan Green Bean Casserole
- Cheesy Roasted Cauliflower (Vegan)
- Sweet and Spicy Pearl Onions (Vegan or Vegetarian)
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24 comments
Who knew spinach could be this divine!
I’m so glad you liked it!
This is on the schedule for next week– looks lovely! I also love your “about me” photo. I look forward to seeing your other recipes!
Thanks Bev! I hope you enjoy the spinach recipe! My “about me” photo was taken by a talented photographer, Debra Matwychuk. I’m pretty stiff in front of the camera so she brought out some props (and a bit of wine!) to lighten me up. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and hope to see you back soon!
This was very, very tasty!!! I didn’t use the yogurt, and the flavor was wonderful! (I wondered if I was hurting the recipe by leaving out the yogurt because maybe it was mellowing down the spices or something. Nope!) I will make this again and again!
Thank you! I’m so happy to hear you loved the recipe!
This was absolutely perfect. I am going to be buying lots of spinach every week just so I can make this.
Thank you so much Katie! I’m glad you love it and super appreciate you taking the time to come by and comment!
Excellent. This is going to be a staple in my house.
Great to hear this – thank you!
I added 1 tomato to the recipe and ate it with black beans + sweet potato that were leftovers =》》》divine!!!! 😇 Thank you for sharing 🙏 ❤
Thank you for the lovely review! That sounds like an interesting combo! Would love it if you could choose a star-rating next time as it helps other people find the recipe.
Great recipe, easy to fix and oh so flavorful. It will be a regular on our dinner table for sure.
Thank you so much! Happy to hear that!
I use fresh spinach .
How much would need to be used to make this ?
Hi Irene – You can use 10 cups of fresh spinach. See the note in the Recipe Card for all the details. Enjoy!
This is a great recipe. Here’s one small alteration I made. I did use fresh spinach, which I ran through the food processor until I was the right consistency. Then I followed the directions to brown garlic/ginger/onion combo, then added the spices to dry cook for the allotted amount of time. Then I just added the processed spinached and cooked on med/low for a few min. It was not wet, so there was very little liquid to steam out. It cooked perfectly! Just an FYI because it saves a step of pre-cooking the fresh spinach and doesn’t adversely affect the dish at all!
Thanks, Kath! That sounds like a great short-cut for those that have a food processor. Thank you for sharing that!
hello – could you use garam masala in place of splitting up these spices? how much garam masala would you need?
Hi – I haven’t tested this using garam masala. Since garam masala is a mix of spices and every version is a bit different, you’d have to compare the spices in your mix and see how they match up with the recipe. So, unfortunately, I don’t have an easy answer for you!
Very Good! One of my favorites!
Made this with kale and it was delicious. Instead of steaming, I threw washed, chopped kale into the pot after cooking the spices and simmered until tender.
Fantastic recipe. Thank you
Hi, lovely recipe the family love it! Could you batch cook and freeze?