Punjabi Makki Saag Roti Cornmeal Greens Winter

Ingredients

• For the saag:
• 1 kg mustard greens (sarson) — washed and roughly chopped
• 200 g spinach — washed and chopped (added for smoothness)
• 100 g bathua (chenopodium — or replace with more spinach)
• 2 tbsp ghee, 1 tbsp maize flour (for thickening)
• 1 onion — finely chopped, 1 tsp ginger paste, 1 tsp garlic paste
• 2 green chilli, salt, 1 tbsp ghee for finishing
• For the makki di roti (4 rotis):
• 2 cups maize flour (coarse), hot water — about 1 cup, salt
• white butter and jaggery to serve

Method

1. Cook the greens: Wash and roughly chop mustard greens, spinach and bathua. Boil together in 3 cups water with salt for 20 to 25 minutes until all greens are very soft and fully cooked.
2. Blend partially: Use a hand blender to blend the cooked greens to a semi-smooth consistency — some texture should remain. Alternatively use a wooden masher (madhani) which is the traditional method.
3. Make the tadka: Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pan. Cook onion 10 minutes until golden. Add ginger paste, garlic paste and green chilli — cook 2 minutes. Pour into the blended greens. Simmer 10 minutes.
4. Thicken with maize flour: Mix 1 tbsp maize flour with 3 tbsp cold water until smooth. Pour into the simmering saag while stirring. Cook 10 more minutes — the maize flour thickens and binds the saag.
5. Add finishing ghee: Add 1 tbsp ghee. Stir. Taste and adjust salt.
6. Make the makki di roti: Mix coarse maize flour and salt with hot water. Form a stiff dough. Shape 4 thick rounds using wet palms (pressing between wet palms into a disc). Cook on a hot griddle 4 minutes per side.
7. Serve the complete plate: Place the thick makki roti on a plate.
8. Add the saag: Ladle the green saag generously alongside.
9. Add white butter: Place a large knob of white butter on the hot saag — it melts into the green surface.
10. Serve with jaggery: A piece of jaggery on the side completes the classic Punjabi winter meal.
11. Note: Sarson da Saag with Makki di Roti is the defining meal of Punjab winter — available from November to February when the mustard fields of Punjab are in bloom and the yellow flowers create the landscape that appears in countless Bollywood films. The combination is so specific to Punjab that it has become the state's food identity symbol. The white butter and jaggery alongside are not optional additions — they are the essential elements that balance the bitterness of the mustard greens.