An egg-mustard note: Add the protein punch to 'sarson-ka-saag & makki roti'

Sarson-ka-saag and makki roti are indelibly linked with Indian winters. The combination of in-season mustard greens cooked down to savoury mush and eaten with hearty corn rotis is very satisfying. But why is it the only way most Indians eat mustard greens? These rough looking leaves, Brassica juncea (related species are also used sometimes), are a reminder that the Brassicas include vegetables like cabbages, leafy greens like kale and even a spice like mustard. All come together in sarson-ka-saag, greens cooked like vegetables and with a delicious underlying pungency.

It is a wonderful combination and may have great health benefits. Like all greens the leaves are packed with vitamins and nutrients and like all Brassica leaves mustard greens have pungent chemicals which evolved to discourage insects but might have benefits of their own. These compounds are contained in adjoining cells which must be broken to release their effect. Crush a mustard leaf and taste to see the change. Cooking deactivates their pungency, but they leave a complex flavour which can be bitter with mustard, so adding some sugar is recommended.

Many cuisines appreciate mustard greens, both grown for themselves or as a bonus from growing the seeds. The Chinese make pickles out of a variety with thick stems, the Japanese use it to stuff in rice balls, and Koreans make a kind of kimchi. It is eaten in stews and stir-fries across Southeast Asia. It is one of the Brassica greens that are fermented in Nepal to make gundruk, an iconic and important ingredient that adds taste and nutrition through the leaner seasons.



Brassica greens are also used in African cooking and the practice seems to have travelled with slaves to the Americas. These greens grew easily and often were treated as waste from the vegetables they came with, so were generally left to the slaves to consume. They were also given the less desirable pieces of meat which they slow-cooked with mustard, turnip and collard greens until the leaves collapsed into savoury and nutritious mush (eaten with corn-bread, which parallels makki-roti).

This became one of the iconic dishes of soul food, as this African-American style of turning disregarded ingredients into delicious dishes came to be called. The Whole Foods chain caused a commotion when it tweeted an encouragement to cook collard greens without, some soul food fans felt, acknowledging its roots and traditional ways of cooking it. But others countered that claiming such control over these greens disregarded their global history and prevented people trying them. Sarson-ka-saag, similarly, should not be confined to one dish. It works with any way of cooking spinach and the tender leaves, crushed for pungency, are excellent in salads — the mustard note works really well with eggs.

You can even try the traditional Punjabi dish mixed with egg yolks and then stiff beaten egg whites and baked in an oven for a souffléomelette. It is a Kareena Kapoor of a dish, elegant yet able, as in 'Jab We Met', of evoking a livelier legacy.