Quick sauté: Amaranth Sabji

(Link to Marathi Recipe)

My grandma had a green thumb. She grew Taro, bananas, mangoes and lots of seasonal vegetables in her backyard. One of the vegetables she grew very regularly was Maath also known as Chines Spinach. She had three vegetable beds growing simultaneously. She would wanter these everyday just pluck the tender leaves enough for the day for one bed. The bush remained in the ground that would grow again in next 3-5 days and produce more leaves for the next plucking. In about 2-3 months she would let them grow a bit to produce flowers and seeds, that those will be planted for the next rotation. Almost alternate days she would make this simple sabji to eat with Jowar Roti. It used to be as fresh as it could get and no one ever got tired of eating this simple sabji.

I grew up near farms, our house was only house with running water in the vicinity for very long time. Farmers would come to get drinking water from us, and would give us this sabji or some other leafy greens on the way back home in the evening, again as fresh as it can get.

Now I buy this from farmers market here and love making and eating this sabji.

1 Big Bunch of Maath/Amaranth/Chinese Spinach
5-6 Large Cloves of Garlic
2 tbsp Oil Salt per taste
1-2 Green chilies (Optional)

Preparation -
Pluck the leaves. You can even take tender stems and peel the thin membrane from the stems.
Wash thoroughly and chop. Smash garlic, slit the green chilies if using.
Heat oil in a large cast iron pan. Add garlic and chilies. Sauté for a minute or so.
Lower the heat, add half of the chopped greens, sprinkle salt over and cover with rest of the chopped green. Cover the pan and let it sit for 3-4 minutes.
Greens now will get steamed and shrink down in quantity making it easy to mix.
Mix thoroughly and sauté for 3-4 minutes and evaporate the water.

Here is how these vegetables look -

Red Maath -

 

Prepared sabji -

Tandulaja (green chinese spinach) -

Prepared sabji -

Amaranth -

Prepared sabji -

Tips - 

1. This vegetable should not be over cooked. 
2. You can add onion if you like.
3. Usually we do not add cumin/mustard/turmeric in the tempering. 
4. My mom makes this sabji in cast iron griddle once she is done making bhakari.