Sometimes, when I’m suffering from a creativity block, all I need to do is take a stroll through the freezer aisle. Yesterday, as I was perusing the freezer goods, I saw a frozen dinner called Chana Saag. I didn’t look too closely, I just saw chickpeas and spinach and knew that’s exactly what I wanted to eat. So I adapted my Indian Style Creamed Spinach recipe by adding a can of chickpeas to make it a more filling meal, and this Chana Saag was born. And whoa, is it good!!
Is Chana Saag Spicy?
This recipe can be made either hot or mild depending on what type of curry powder you use, but either way the fragrant spices will be heady and flavorful. The coconut milk adds just the right amount of natural sweetness and creamy flavor to balance the warm spices.
How to Serve Chana Saag
I suggest serving this over rice or with some homemade naan to sop up the sauce. I served mine with some rice and while I usually go for jasmine rice, the Chana Saag was so flavorful that plain white rice did the job nicely.
Can I Substitute the Coconut Milk?
Absolutely. The original version of this recipe used a 12oz. can of evaporated milk in place of the coconut milk. I’ve since grown to love coconut milk with curry powder, so I now prefer that, and it makes this recipe appropriate for both vegans and vegetarians, so I went with coconut milk. But it tastes great both ways!
WHAT KIND OF CURRY POWDER DO YOU USE?
I prefer to buy mild curry powder, that way I can make both mild and hot curries with it by adding my own cayenne pepper for heat, when I want. For this recipe, I used Sharwood’s mild curry powder. Or you can try making your own curry powder using this recipe for Easy Homemade Curry Powder from Spiceitupp.com.
Chana Saag Curry
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1.5 cups long grain white rice ($0.95)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger ($0.30)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1 Tbsp curry powder hot or mild ($0.30)
- 1 tsp ground cumin ($0.10)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 1 tomato ($0.31)
- 1 lb. frozen chopped spinach ($1.60)
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($0.49)
- 1/2 cup water ($0.00)
- 1 13oz. can coconut milk ($2.79)
Instructions
- Begin the rice first. Add the rice and 3 cups water to a sauce pot. Cover with a lid, place the pot over high heat, and bring it up to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off, and let the rice rest for 10 minutes, undisturbed, with the lid in place. Fluff with a fork just before serving.
- While the rice is cooking, begin the curry. Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and grate the ginger. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger to a large skillet with the olive oil and sauté over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. While these are cooking, dice the tomato.
- Add the curry powder and cumin to the skillet and continue to stir and cook for one minute more. Add the diced tomato and salt. Continue to cook for about five minutes more, or until the tomato has broken down.
- Drain the chickpeas in a colander and give them a quick rinse. Add the rinsed chickpeas, frozen spinach, and a half cup of water to the skillet. Stir everything together and then bring it up to a simmer over medium heat. Let the mixture simmer for five minutes to allow the flavors to blend.
- After five minutes, turn the heat down to medium-low and add the coconut milk. Depending on how thick you want the sauce, you can either just heat through or let it simmer until thickened. Leave your chana saag chunky ,or, if preferred, use an immersion blender to purée some of the mixture. Once it’s heated through, adjust the salt to your liking.
- Serve the creamy chickpeas and spinach over a bowl of warm rice.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Chana Saag Curry – Step By Step Photos
Begin the rice first. Add 1.5 cups rice and 3 cups water to a sauce pot. Cover with a lid, place the pot over high heat, and bring it up to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off, and let the rice rest for 10 minutes, undisturbed, with the lid in place. Fluff with a fork just before serving.
First dice one yellow onion, mince 2 cloves of garlic, and grate about one Tbsp ginger. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger to a large skillet with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger over medium heat for a few minutes, or until the onions are soft.
Add 1 Tbsp curry powder and 1 tsp cumin to the skillet and sauté for a minute more. The spices will stick to the bottom of the skillet, but it’s okay because the juice from the tomatoes in the next step will dissolve it off. Just make sure that the heat is not up so high that they burn.
While the onions are sautéing, dice one tomato. Add the tomato to the skillet with 3/4 tsp salt and sauté for about five minutes more, or until the tomatoes break down a bit.
After five minutes it looks something like this. It will smell pretty amazing at this point!
Add 1 lb. frozen spinach (no need to thaw), one 15oz. can chickpeas (drained), and ½ cup water. Stir everything together and then bring it up to a simmer over medium heat. Let the mixture simmer for five minutes to allow the flavors to blend.
After simmering for five minutes, turn the heat down to medium-low and add a 13oz. can of coconut milk. Depending on how thick you want the sauce, you can either just heat through or let it simmer until thickened. Leave your chana saag chunky, or, if preferred, use an immersion blender to purée some of the mixture. Once it’s heated through, adjust the salt to your liking.
Whatever texture you choose, it’s freaking delicious.
Serve over rice or with a piece of naan for dipping!
This recipe came together beautifully, I will very happily recommend it particularly to friends new to Indian cooking. But mine came out unaccountably bland, I have no idea why. I’m going to add some lemon or lime and maybe a little garam masala. There’s just no there there
If you like authentic Indian food, donโt use this recipe. ย WAY too much curry powder and basically no other spices. The ratio of spinach and milk to chickpeas is also way off. ย Definitely not for usย
Definitely agree with increasing amount of spices and salt. I also threw in some cayenne and only used about an 1/8 cup of water. Subbed a 9 oz bag of fresh spinach and added in some paneer our grocery deli recently started selling. We soaked the paneer in water during cooking and added it in at the end after allowing the curry to reduce down for about 10 minutes. It only took simmering for about 5 minutes to get delightfully soft. My fiance and I LOVED it.
Made with a few modifications based on what I had on hand:
-1.5x the spices (I like a lot of spice)
-canned fried roasted tomatoes instead of fresh (drained)
-fresh spinach
-omitted the water
It was excellent, spicy, and it froze and reheated well!
We all loved this but I think we needed 1.5 tsp of salt. The kids wouldn’t eat it at first bc it was bland to them so I added salt to everyone’s plate. The kids gobbled it up after that.ย
Loved this recipe! My only changes were subbing half a can of diced tomatoes (drained) for the tomato and only using the solids from the coconut milk because I wanted to keep it thick. I only had a 12 oz bag of spinach. This was definitely a winner, so delicious and filling!ย
This recipe is amazing! The brand of curry powder I used didnโt have the punch I was looking for so I doubled it and added 1/4 tsp of cayenne. So good!!!
Good but disappointingly bland. Wondering if I didn’t toast the spices enough. Salt and sriracha went a long way.ย
Super bland. The only thing I didn’t follow exactly from this recipe was adding tomatoes, but I don’t think that would add too much more flavor.
This is SO GOOD! ย I did use frozen spinach, I was out of fresh, which worked great. Its filling and delicious! I’m printing off the recipe to add to my favourites. ย I’m trying to eat 100% plant based meals and this is perfect!
Thank you!
I skipped the tomatoes and shook in some red chilli flakes. Served mine over brown rice tonight and youโre right – it was freaking delicious! Thanks for another great and easy recipe!
I made some adjustments based on what I had on hand… I used basmati rice, red onion, canned diced tomato, and coconut cream instead of the listed respective ingredients. I also only had 6 oz of spinach in my freezer so I had to make do with only that. It turned out great! Super quick and easy to throw together, even with significantly less spinach than I wouldโve liked to use haha!ย
This meal is absolutely delicious! I’m a big saag paneer fan and the chickpeas are such a similar consistency that it might even fulfill your paneer! I’ve made this a few times without a tomato (quarantine) and it came out just fine!
I add the spinach and cook through, then puree with the stick blender before adding the coconut milk and chickpeas. Sometimes I add yogurt instead of coconut milk depending on what I have on hand.
This recipe is so good and I will defiantly make again. Great as a left over too.