The Joy of Yam Saag

Okay, so I’ve done at least two other saag posts. Maybe three…it’s getting excessive, I know.

…but I really, really love saag. I’ve made simple spinach saag, aloo saag with regular potatoes, a version with jerusalem artichokes or sunchokes (by mistake), and now a kind with yams (yes, yams, not sweet potatoes. There is a difference. I wanted sweet potatoes but there were none at the store. There’s never yam when you’re looking for it, but the second I wasn’t looking it appeared, and I had no choice but to substitute).

I love them all, these saags. Every time I have aloo saag with russet potatoes I remember how wonderful the bland potato is. The texture is perfect. As long as it’s not over-cooked, it adds a richness to the dish. The jerusalem artichoke version was fun because it was a new, mild flavour. Kind of like a nice surprise every time I took a bite of the root vegetable…if you have a 5-second memory, or chew very, very slowly.

Then the yam…wow…the spinach is already mildly sweet, but the yam was like a diabetic hit of sugar. Every bite tasted like dessert. Yes, spinach for dessert. Think of it more like sweet potato pie with a bit of green.

I followed the same recipe as I did for the sunchokes, substituting yellow mustard seeds for the black ones, and skipping the asafetida, since I left that in Montreal by accident. Everything else went smoothly. I made one batch with the yams and a second batch with russet potatoes (in case people were scared off by the orange colour of the yams). I could eat a whole pot of either of these, preferably the yam…but I wouldn’t…mostly because then I couldn’t have more the next day, or the day after that. This may be a big factor in why I am not overweight…practicality.

The colour of this dish is the only unappealing thing, but Indian food is not supposed to be beautiful. It should be messy and thick, and stew-y. Kind of like it’s saving itself for the less superficial eater/the Beauty and the Beast Disney movie of food. The miracle of Indian food is that it should be an array of colours, flavours, and textures (“It’s what’s on the inside that counts” and all those sayings). Just try the saag. It’s so, so good.