Thursday, June 3, 2010

Saaga of saga or spinach

When I was a youngster, we used to live in government quarters with a huge garden. Dad was in the Orissa government service and while I guess we never had a lot of money, we did have load of fresh vegetables from the garden. And I hated all veggies other than a chosen few. When we visited friends or relatives, my mom would pack 1 or 2 huge bags (depending on the size of the visiting family) of fresh vegetables for them. While others would get sweets or fruits as gifts, ours was always these fresh vegetables and don't ask me how embarrassed I was! I couldn't imagine then why my mom would carry such gifts (Of course it was economical for my mom and tasty for the visiting family - but it was well beyond my comprehension!). When we moved out of the big house with the garden to a small house with no garden, thats when I saw the the anguish of my mom when she bought dried, not fresh vegetables at atrocious prices.

Here is a quick saga (any green leafy vegetable - my mother in law has used spinach here) with additional vegetables that is made commonly in Oriya household. The choice of vegetables is up to what is available, but these are the ones usually used. Sending this to Preeti's green gourmet event, though there is nothing gourmet about it!

Ingredients
Green leafy vegetable like spinach - a whole big bunch washed and cleaned and cut
1 small eggplant cut into small pieces
1/2 cup of pumpkin cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon of panch phutan
2 red chillies
2 tablespoon of oil/ghee
handful of badis (optional)
Salt to taste

How To
Take a pan and fry the badis in hot oil. Move the hot badis into a paper towel to drain the oil.
Take a bigger pan and add the oil. Once the oil is hot add the panch phutan and red chillies.
Add the pumpkin and salt and fry for few minutes. Then add the eggplant and cool on high heat for 2 minutes.
Then add the spinach leaves and let the spinach wilt and let the vegetables get cooked.
Once everything is cooked, adjust the salt and add the fried badis an serve.





Tips:
The Badis need to be added just before serving. It is optional and can be left out if you don't have it.
You can make this with ghee too, it tastes even better.

39 comments:

  1. This is so yumm and healthy! Thanks for sending this to GG-1.

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  2. This spinach recipe with pumpkin ,eggplant and badis looks very colorful,healthy and delicious.

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  3. Add eggplant n pumpkin to palak is new to me and looks too gud

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  4. adding veggies to the spinach is new to me too and sounds so healthy

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  5. I miss the freshness of the vegetables we get back home. I love all kinds of saga but I miss the kalmi saga the most. This ghanta is a fav of mine ... and your dish looks so so yum. :-)

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  6. Adding vege is new to me.. healthy dish..

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  7. Thats a beautiful and healthy dish, adding veggies is very new for me too..

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  8. literally i started to jump once i saw this in my dashboard. thanks somoo for posting this. love this saaga. and my maa always grow our greens in the garden. once i went to Delhi I understood how much fresh veggies matter.lovely dish and thanks a ton once again.

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  9. Thats such a healthy and beautiful dish! A delicious entry for the event!

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  10. Healthy n colorful spinach dish...

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  11. Nice Recipe..Palanga Saaga..All sagas r simply my fav to with pakhala bhata

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  12. I love spinach..this is a new recipe to me..looks yummy...

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  13. healthy and colorful spinach dish...its yummy..

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  14. Love the recipe dear and yes buying these fresh leaves from market which are dirty, not so fresh and really expensive, is not so good.

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  15. healthy and delicious looking spinach sabzi...like the recipe...thanks for sharng this!

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  16. thre is nothing like having a garden on ur own and wat if u can harvest ur own greens..yummy dish

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  17. I too like this simple preparation...the bodi adds special taste and crunchymunchiness. Here we hardly get the different varieties of 'Sagao' that is available in Orissa and Bengal.

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  18. Spinach veggie looks very delicious, nice recipe!

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  19. thanks all... try it with other veggies and let me know too...

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  20. This looks like a healthy dish. WIll try to make it my husband will love it.

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  21. This is a very new recipe to me,quite an unusual combo,but sounds very nice!

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  22. wow, so many ingredients I don't know of...must learn more about Indian food :-)

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  23. it is quick and easy and yum... hope you try it and like it!

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  24. delicious....looks so yummy and perfect

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  25. Very nice and healthy dish. Looks delicious and tempting.

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  26. simple and easy - yes... Hope you try it! Thanks !

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  27. First time visiting your blog..You have a lovely blog with wonderful oriya dishes which i never tried..glad to know you..Feel free to visit my blog..spinach,aubergine and pumpkin combo sounds very interesting!

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  28. Very healthy dish and a wonderful click as well

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  29. Dear Somoo
    How are you? I feel good to see your recipe after a long time. Very nice dish and i often make it..But BaDi can not be optional..I mean BaDi is good if it is there.
    The click is awesome with the pancha Phuntana reflecting off. Flash ta use na kari thile ahuri bhala hei tha-anta, nuha?
    Have a nice sunday

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  30. Ushnish- will try without flash next time. thanks for the tip...
    Leena/Sushma - thanks

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  31. Dear SOmoo
    Not using flash is tricky...please use a stand for the camera or keep it on some thing dont hold with your hand ..and put on timer to click...else it will be bad

    Bhala thiba

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  32. I tried my recent click without flash... I did get lot darker pix... So it is tricky - I agree....
    I dont have a fancy camera or a stand. But thanks for the tips...

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  33. Nice one..... a little bit of freshly grated coconut added on top really adds to the flavour of the dish......tip shared by my mom-in-law

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  34. Nice Dish...

    Helthy dish.....

    Thanks
    Jai Jagannath

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