Calories in Sarson ka Saag

The recipe behind the figure cooks 150 g of mustard leaves, 50 g of spinach and 20 g of bathua with a little onion and maize, finishes them with 1 tablespoon of ghee and 1/2 teaspoon of butter, and divides the pot into 2 bowls. Each bowl therefore holds the greens from 75 g of sarson, 25 g of spinach and 10 g of bathua. Leaves cook down a great deal, so this is a fairly small bowl of saag, though a katori at home may be smaller yet. A dhaba serving with a spoon of white butter melting on it is far richer than 124 kcal.

Mustard greens, spinach and bathua are among the lightest foods there are, so nearly all the energy in saag is added at the stove. Fat supplies 61% of it, carbohydrate 25% and protein 14%. That fat is ghee and butter, so far more of the bowl's 8.3 g of fat is saturated than in a sabzi cooked in vegetable oil. The leaves bring the rest of what matters: 5.2 g of fibre, along with iron and calcium, in a bowl of 124 kcal.

On its own a bowl of saag is about 6% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 7% of a woman's. It is rarely eaten on its own. The classic plate adds makki ki roti, more butter and often jaggery, and those, not the greens, make the meal a heavy one. Two bowls of saag come to 248 kcal with 8.6 g of protein and 16.6 g of fat. Protein is modest, so a glass of lassi or chaas or a bowl of dal completes the plate.

Because the fat in saag is ghee and butter, a large part of the bowl's 8.3 g of fat is saturated, and that part grows with every extra spoon. Anyone who has been advised to limit saturated fat, or who has a heart condition or raised cholesterol, should follow their doctor or dietitian on how much ghee and butter to use. The iron in saag comes from leaves, from which the body absorbs only a part.