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 plant-based or vegetarian or go unconventional and add chicken.
If you're vegetarian or omnivore, you can fortify it with paneer, a fresh Indian cheese made from whole milk. However you choose to make it, Saag pairs perfectly with something starchy such as rice or naan bread.
TLDR
Saag in 5 steps
- 1Cook spinach and set aside.
- 2Fry onions, ginger, and garlic.
- 3Add spices and fry for 15 minutes.
- 4Add spinach and yogurt.
- 5Blend.
TLDR
Saag in 5 steps
- 1Cook spinach and set aside.
- 2Fry onions, ginger, and garlic.
- 3Add spices and fry for 15 minutes.
- 4Add spinach and yogurt.
- 5Blend.
The Ingredients
This Indian-Spiced Spinach starts with frozen spinach. If you want to use fresh spinach, you'll need about 10 cups. See the Recipe Notes for details.
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 some 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 (dairy or non-dairy) 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 paneer or make your own. Most large grocery stores or Indian groceries carry paneer.
Tips for mixed diets
This Indian-Spiced Spinach is easy to make vegan or vegetarian, or 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 could also simplify the cooking by omitting the yogurt and allowing dinners to add their preferred choice of dairy or plant-based yogurt.
To make one of the variations, with paneer or with chicken, add at the end of cooking and heat through.
If you want to make an Indian-ish themed dinner, we suggest this Saag recipe, 1-Pot Indian Red Lentils (Dal), rice, naan, and Indian-Inspired Cashew Sauce served over roasted cauliflower or chicken.
Visual Overview: Making Indian-Spiced Spinach (Saag)
This dish starts with frozen spinach. Cook the spinach according to the package directions, drain well, and set aside. e
Add oil to a frying pan and fry the onions, ginger, and garlic for about 4-5 minutes until they are starting to brown slightly.ere...
Add 1/2 cup of spiced taco meat.
Add in the dry spices and continue frying for about 15 more minutes. You’ll need to stir this every few minutes. here...
Scatter on about 1/2 cup of tomatoes.
The mixture will get dryer as you fry it. Add a tablespoon of water as needed 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.
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. Taste and add salt as needed. Salt will enhance all of the flavours.
If you want to make either of the variations - with paneer or chicken, add these after blending and heat through.
Add a dollop of sour cream.
This recipe is a site favourite!
Recipe Card
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
Courses, Cuisines, and Keywords
Adapted From
This recipe was adapted from Aarti Sequeira’s Paneer: Spinach with Indian Cheese recipe.
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!