Desi Saag Channa with grated paneer

I've lived a long while in India and in all my time there I have never come across Saag Channa. It's always been Saag(mustard leaves/spinach) with either Paneer(cottage cheese) or Aaloo(potatoes) or Ghost(lamb) or some other awesome variation. But never channa (garbanzo beans). Which is why when I noticed it at a restaurant in SD I was intrigued.

A little chat with the friendly chef revealed just how simple it was to create this slurpalicious dish!

It takes about 30 minutes to make including prep time(chopping and grating).

Chop:

Take 1 bouquet of spinach leaves and 1 bunch of mustard leaves. Wash them both thoroughly. Drain the water and chop roughly. Set aside.

Next chop 1 medium sized onion and 1 tomato in big chunks. This is all the chopping you have to do.

Grate and cook:

Take about 200 grams of paneer and grate it. In a pan pour a teeny-tiny amount of oil over a medium flame. Add the grated paneer to the oil and add some salt and a pinch of red chilli powder. Paneer cooks really fast so set it aside after about a minute on the pan.

In parallel drop the pre-soaked garbanzo beans into the pressure cooker.Add some salt and turmeric into the water used to cook the beans. Pressure cook for about 25 minutes until the beans are nice and melt-in-your-mouth soft.

And now on to the actual cooking process:

To a large-deep- hard-bottomed pan ( placed over a high flame) add some vegetable oil or 1 tspn of ghee. Drop some mustard seeds and jeera into the hot oil/ghee. Once they begin to crackle, add the chopped onion and tomato chunks.Drop some salt, red chilli powder(1/2 tspn) & turmeric powder (1/4 tspn). Once the base of onion and tomatoes are nice and tender. Add the greens. Add additional salt if required.

Once the greens are cooked. Add the entire mixture to the food processor and blend. I usually blend for exactly 25 seconds. I don't like the consistency to be too fine or like that of palak paneer's. 

Next pour the mixture back into the large pan.Toss the grated paneer & cooked channa and mix well. Add some salt and pepper to taste. 

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with either steaming rice or Rotis/Naan(Breads).