Chana Saag is a classic Indian curry made with chickpeas, loads of spinach, onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and spiced with homemade garam masala. Serve it with warm pita bread or steamed basmati rice for a perfect vegan and gluten free weeknight meal. This crowd pleaser recipe can be made ahead, making it an ideal dish to serve at parties.
I love the versatile protein and fiber rich chickpeas. Although my go to chana masala recipe works great for dinner gatherings, I love to try new recipes. Last weekend, I had few friends over and I had planned a north Indian dinner menu. I had bought a giant bag of fresh spinach to make chana saag. My usual recipe for chana saag uses pureed spinach and I wanted to change it up a little and try something different but easy. I quickly browsed through some of my favorite blogs and decided to make Malika Basu’s recipe for chana saag that looked delicious yet simple.
As Malika describes, the recipe indeed is very easy and yields an aromatic and perfectly spiced curry. I loved how the bag of spinach blended so beautifully with the rest of the ingredients. This healthy and nutrition rich curry is definitely a keeper and perfect for quick weeknight meal. To me, it tasted even better the next day when all the flavors had infused well. Served with warm pita bread and beetroot raita was my favorite way to enjoy it.
I made very slight modifications to the original recipe, I prefer using homemade ghee in this recipe instead of oil. Thank you Malika for this healthy and simple recipe from your lovely blog!
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A classic Indian curry made with chickpeas, spinach, tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic and spiced with warm homemade garam masala.
- 1 15 oz can of chickpeas
- 4 cups fresh baby spinach
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp mango powder amchoor
- 1 tbsp ghee
- Salt to taste
- Peel and finely chop the onion. In a medium sized pot, add ghee and when it’s sizzling hot, toss in the chopped onions. Saute the onions for ten minutes with a pinch of salt.
- When the onion starts turning a pale golden, add the ginger and garlic, and saute for another five minutes until the onions turn a darker shade of golden.
- Add the turmeric, chilli and cumin powders and stir for a minute. If the mixture starts getting stuck to the bottom of the pot, add a tablespoon of warm water and scrape it off.
- Next, chop the tomato roughly and chuck it into the masala, stirring for a couple of minutes until it disintegrates. When it does, add half a cup of warm water. lower the heat to medium and let the spices infuse the tomato.
- In about five minutes, when you see oil oozing through the surface of the masala, roughly chop the spinach and stir into the masala. Now, rinse and drain the chickpeas and mix them in.
- Let the chickpeas cook with the spices for another five minutes. To finish, add salt to taste, sprinkle garam masala and amchoor powder all over and serve hot.
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Author: Archana
Hey there! I am a techie turned recipe developer, cooking instructor, and food blogger. I love food and enjoy developing easy and healthy recipes for busy lifestyles. I live in New Jersey with my husband and two sons.
Indu says
looks so yummy!
Archana says
Thank you Indu!
Indukuri A Raju says
for US, Choppoing of costco loose spinach is painful… What i Do instead is freeze the spinach bag and simply crush the frozen spinach leaves between my palms to get desired effect. Cheers
Archana says
Thank you! Great idea
Amy says
Thanks, Archana! Wondering where to get the mango root powder. Sounds delicious!
Archana says
Amy, I used dry mango powder which is available in Indian grocery stores. Instead of amchoor powder you can also use 1 tsp of lemon juice. It basically gives the required sour taste!
payel says
Looks so delicious!
Archana says
Thank you Payel and it tastes heavenly.
annika says
You can never go wrong with chickpeas. Love your presentation!
Archana says
Thank you Annika!
Alok Singhal says
I have been checking out food blogs today after long, and this looks super-delicious!
Archana says
Thank you Alok!
Elaine says
Thank you. We had this for dinner and it was fantastic. I added cauliflower since I had to cook it. Yum!
Archana says
Hi Elaine! So glad you enjoyed this easy and delicious recipe. I like your idea of adding cauliflower in it!
Amber says
Just finished the dishes after eating this for dinner tonight. I never realized how creamy the spinach got when it is cooked down and I’m so used to curries with coconut milk I thought we would miss it. Nope! Will make again!
We used the lemon juice substitute you mention in the comments for the amchoor since we didn’t have that on hand. Since we’re a spicy family, we added some leftover chopped jalapeno from another dish and it was perfectly hot but oh-so delish!
Archana says
Thank you Amber!
Vishal says
Hi Archana- Did you change this recipe? I believe there was a previous version where you did the sauté first and cooked all the ingredients with the chickpeas. That definitely seems easier, curious what happened to that one.
Archana says
I have not changed this recipe. May be you are referring to the Chana saag instant pot version?
Ana Salas says
I made this for a quick dinner tonight, and everyone loved it! I wanted to ask – you mention that the dish can be made ahead – can you provide some recommendations on how best to reheat it? Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Archana says
Thank you for the feedback. To reheat you can simply microwave or reheat in a pan on the stovetop
Hemali says
Hi Archana! I’m excited to try this recipe tonight but I don’t have ghee on hand.. can I make the dish without it or substitute it for butter?
Archana says
Hi Hemali! Yes you can use any oil. It will still be delicious!
Valerie Smith says
Just made this delicious dish. It was wonderful. I added another tomato because I love my curries saucy and substituted the lemon juice as a previous responder suggested. I am passing the recipe on to my sister.
Archana says
Thank you for your lovely feedback