Sarson ka Saag Pizza | Green Pizza

Recently I got to know that there is an organic farm named “Mustafawi Organic Vegetables” in Qatar. They take the order on weekdays and every weekend they deliver the fresh vegetables at your door step. I always like to purchase fresh vegetables. So I ended up placing an order for a basket of vegetables. And it was pretty huge. The best part is, even after a week they remain fresh. The box included vegetables like Lettuce, Kale (Collard Greens), Coriander , Celery, Parsley , Chive, Mustard leaves , Mint , Cucumber ,Zucchini ,Turnip ,Radish , Beetroot , Carrot etc. All were really fresh . The day I received I was very excited. I started making juices and preparing vegetarian dishes.

The Mustard leaves in the basket looked a bit different from what we see in India. The leaves are large and wide. When I saw it, the only one recipe came into my mind was Sarson ka saag, which was one from my to-do list.

Sarson is the Hindi name of Mustard. It is a famous dish in Punjab (Both in India and Pakistan), and they often prepare it during winter.  Sarson ka saag is served with Makki ki Roti. ( flat bread made of corn meal flour) . And a big dollop of white butter (Makhan) or Jaggery will be on top of the hot saag..

Sounds tempting?? Well, my plan din’t work out.  So I decided to transform the recipe, and out of blue I decided to make a pizza.  I got some fresh mozzarella cheese from carrefour super market. Let us get into the recipe.

You need,

• Pizza base – recipe is below
• Sarson ka saag – recipe is below
• Fresh mozzarella cheese – 125 gram
• All purpose flour – for dusting
• Olive oil – to drizzle
• Oregano to garnish

You have to

Preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius

• Dust the surface of a table or a large board with flour
• Take the pizza dough ball and stretch the dough to form a pizza base. You could choose to keep the shape circle or rectangle
• Transfer this base to the baking pan
• Make the edges are bit taller than the inner portion (should look like a plate.)
• Spread the middle of  base with Sarson ka saag, leaving edges

• Tear the cheese place on the base leaving some space in between
• Drizzle some olive oil on top

• Keep the pan in the middle rack in the oven
• Bake for approx 30 to 40 minutes(depends on the oven temperature) till the cheese is melted and edges are brown.
• Remove from oven and rub the oregano in your palm and sprinkle it on top of the pizza.

• Slice and serve hot or warm

Pizza base

You need,

• All purpose flour – 1 cup (You could replace 1/4 of flour with corn meal flour)
• Dry east – 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt –  1/2 teaspoon
• Honey – 1/4 tbsp
• Water  – 1/2 to 3/4 cup
• Olive oil  – 1 teaspoon

You have to,

• Mix first 5 ingredients in a deep bowl and form a sticky elastic dough.
• Pat your palms with Olive oil and knead the dough to form a ball.
• Keep this dough in a bowl and cover with moist cotton cloth.
• After 30-40 minutes the dough will be raised.
• Punch the dough to remove the air
• Now it is ready to use.

If you are planning to make base this ahead, transfer it to bowl, cover with cloth and cover the bowl with a lid and refrigerate till ready to use.

Sarson ka Saag
You need

• Refined oil – 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Garlic cloves finely chopped – 2 teaspoon
• Ginger finely chopped – 1 teaspoon
• Green chili – 1, finely chopped
• Onion – 1 small, finely chopped
• Green leaves puree – 3/4 cup (Recipe below)
• Salt to taste

You have to

• Heat oil in a pan in medium flame
• Add cumin seeds, allow to crackle
• Add green chili, garlic and ginger and saute it.
• Now add the onions and saute till it turns translucent
• Add the green leaves puree
• Finally add salt to taste.
• Boil this for couple of minutes
• Remove from flame and allow to cool down until ready to use

Green leaves puree
You need,

• Mustard Leaves – leaves of 1 big bunch , cleaned washed and chopped
• Spinach Leaves – leaves of 1 small bunch , cleaned washed and chopped
• Water as required

You have to,

• Boil water (which is double the amount of leaves ) in a sauce pan in medium flame
• Add both the leaves and blanch for 2-3 minutes. Don’t close the pan.
• Strain in a colander and run cold water.
• Discard the water and switch off the flame
• Leave it for a while to cool down a bit.
• Grind the leaves into a smooth puree in a grinder jar..
• Transfer this to a bowl and keep aside till ready to use..