The Indian subcontinent · Volume 14, The Langar, the Spit and a Coast Without a Restaurant
Sai bhaji
Sindh
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- Researched from 48 sources in the brief
A lentil-and-greens stew built around channa dal rather than a plain spinach dish: spinach carries the bulk, joined where possible by khatta paalak, a sour-leaved spinach variant, plus dill and fenugreek leaves, cooked down with a mixed handful of vegetables, potato, small brinjal, small okra, and mashed to a thick, semi-dry consistency rather than left loose. Whether to blend the greens before or after cooking is a genuine, live disagreement among Sindhi home cooks, not a fixed rule, so this recipe gives one workable method rather than claiming the only correct one.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 1 hour.
Ingredients
- 100g channa dal (chickpea lentils), soaked 1 hour
- 300g spinach, washed and roughly chopped
- a small handful khatta paalak, chopped, if available
- a small handful dill, chopped
- a small handful fenugreek leaves, chopped
- 1 small potato, cut small
- 1 small brinjal, cut small
- a handful okra, cut small
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- a thumb a thumb of ginger, grated
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2 tbsp oil or ghee
- to taste salt
Method
- Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and sauté the onion, chilli and ginger until soft.
- Add the potato, brinjal and okra and cook a few minutes more.
- Add the spinach and other chopped greens, drained channa dal, turmeric, coriander powder and salt, then enough water to just cover.
- Seal and pressure-cook 7 to 8 whistles, until the dal and vegetables are fully soft.
- Mash roughly with the back of a spoon to a thick, semi-dry consistency.
- Serve with rice.
What a modern chef changes
Blanched and blitzed greens, the dal kept separate, a dehydrated garnish for texture
Three named changes
Method
- First, the greens are blanched briefly and shocked in iced water before cooking, then blitzed in a high-power blender to a vivid, ultra-smooth puree, a colour and texture the traditional long-cooked mash cannot hold on to, since extended cooking dulls chlorophyll fast.
- Second, the channa dal is cooked separately in the pressure cooker to full softness, then folded back into the blended greens at the end, so the dal keeps a distinct, creamy bite rather than dissolving into the same mash.
- Third, a scattering of dehydrated spinach, dried to a crisp shard in the dehydrator and crumbled over the top, restores the textural contrast the traditional single-consistency dish deliberately does without, plated as a quenelle rather than spooned into a bowl.