Saag Tofu Recipe
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Saag, a stew of spinach and spices, is one of the most common offerings at Indian restaurants. We added tofu for a quick, delicious dish.
This recipe was featured as part of both our Make Your Own Tofu story and our Supercharge with Superfoods photo gallery.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound firm tofu, large dice
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 2 medium plum tomatoes, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 pound baby spinach
- 1/2 cup plain Greek-style whole-milk yogurt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Combine tofu with 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons of the garam masala, and the salt. Mix gently to coat tofu; set aside.
- Heat a large (12-inch) frying pan over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of the oil. When it shimmers, add tofu in a single layer and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- Wipe out the pan, return it to the stovetop over medium heat, and add remaining 1 tablespoon oil. When it shimmers, add garlic and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender and browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and ginger and cook until tomatoes just start to soften, about 2 minutes.
- Add spinach in handfuls and stir frequently, scraping the bottom of the pan to incorporate any browned bits. Cook until spinach is very wilted and liquid is cooked off, about 7 minutes. Stir in reserved tofu and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, stir together remaining garam masala and yogurt and add to spinach mixture. Stir until well mixed and serve.
Beverage pairing: Ken Forrester Petit Chenin, South Africa. Almost any unoaked, moderate-alcohol, dry white wine could work with this dish, but Chenin Blanc is an especially good selection since it often has some of the earthy notes that you’ll find in spinach. This inexpensive one from South Africa is laden with the little complexities of spice, melon, and citrus.
I used just one teaspoon of salt, added to the spinach/tomato mixture (because I forgot to salt the tofu) and it seemed plenty salty to us. I inadvertently used nonfat yogurt but it was still creamy and delicious.
Hey everyone, the salt amount seems to be an issue, so a while back we retested this recipe and lowered the salt to 2 teaspoons, which we liked. It sounds like it is still too salty! We used Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, NOT Morton's or fine table salt, so that may be one culprit for the saltiness.
If you're worried about the salt content, I suggest mixing in only 1 teaspoon (or less) of salt in step #1, and then salting to taste if needed as you go.
Let us know how it works out!
Amy Wisniewski
Assoc. Food Editor, CHOW
Wish I had read these comments BEFORE I made it. I like things fairly salty, but I agree with everyone above that this would be delicious with 1 tsp salt. Otherwise, this was delicious and filling, and the Greek yogurt made it just as creamy as the traditional cream.
Great recipe, though I cut down on the salt. The garam masala is strong and slight spicy, and it goes well with the spinach. I also poured the excess oil from cooking the tofu onto some jasmine rice, and it tasted delicious.
I loved this! Even my tofu-ambivalent husband loved it. Served over jasmine rice, it made a really substantial meal, and is currently my favorite veggie entree. I used frozen spinach, which was fine. Didn't measure my salt, but couldn't imagine using this much, just seasoned the way I usually would. Only had about 3t of garam masala, so substituted/added a little additional curry, which added some lovely pop and cut down the nutmeggy/allspiciness of the GM. I was going to use extra firm tofu, but the store was out. Instead I pressed it with a pan of water and the texture was excellent.
I just made this for the second time using one tsp of salt and it was delicious! WAY too salty w two. I was also out of yogurt, which didnt make a difference, and used frozen spinach that I had thawed and drained.
This was one of the few times I didn't read the reviews before I made a recipe, and I sure wish I had! Like the other reviewers, I felt it was incredibly salty. I even put a teaspoon less of salt in, thinking that 4 seemed like alot. Other than that, it was really good. I followed the recipe as far as the ingrediets went, but before I added the yogurt, I used a stick blender to blend up the spinach/onion/tomato/spices mixture. That made it much more like the saag that you find in restaurants. Decrease the salt, blend the spinach, and this is almost like the saag you'd find in an indian restaurant.
Tasty, but like the others I found the saltiness overpowering (and yes, I used kosher salt). The next time I try this I'll just leave out the back end salt.
i found this dish to have great flavor but it is VERY salty. i would taste it before adding in the second salt addition to see if you think it needs more.
hi, all. did you make this recipe using kosher salt? we test all our recipes in the CHOW kitchen using kosher salt and it is significantly less salty than table salt.
I made this last night with three teaspoons of salt and it was still way too salty. Everyone complained, but otherwise it was so delicious that they ate it anyway. I think 1.5 teaspoons of salt should be about right.
Also, I used Nasoya Firm tofu and it broke up a bit when I tossed it with the spices. Extra firm might work a little better? Or I might make it again with frozen paneer from the Indian grocery.
followed all directions except used 2% greek yogurt. so yummy! but yes, it is a little salty. i'd reduce the salt by 1 tsp.
anyone use nonfat/lowfat yogurt? also, tempeh instead of tofu? thoughts?
Did anyone else think this was INCREDIBLY salty? I was cooking in a rush and so followed the recipe to the letter (which I rarely do) and it was iincredibly (and inedibly) salty.
I think this will be lovely the next go round, however.
I use a mortar and pestle successfully on cumin, coriander, fenugreek, mustard, cardamom and fennel seeds.
If you don't buy ground, leave the cloves and cinnamon sticks whole and remove after cooking.
do you all use a mortar & pestle to grind your spices?? i am wanting to try making indian dishes, but the spices intimidate me...thanks for any info!
I recently saw tofu substitutied for paneer at a local (Greenville, SC) Indian restaurant, and thought it was a great idea. Lots of protein in this dish.
Delicious and a lot less heavy compared to a lot of the saag paneers that I have had in restaurants.
This dish improves with time as the flavors have time to meld together. I make this on a weekend for the weekday (everything minus the yogurt) and add the yogurt at the last minute. Yum!
I used ordinary store-bought tofu for the recipe, so the first time I did it, the big cubes were a bit bland. I did the recipe again with smaller cubes, and I put the ginger at the beginning with the garam masala, for more taste. I love the pairing of tofu and a classic indian dish. Next time, I am tempted to finely chop the spinash to give the dish a creamy texture like the chicken saag at my favourite indian restaurant.
I used a full cup of yogurt.... pretty tasty though