Bathua (Chenopodium Album) Spicy Marsagga/Soup (chhaunka, a village recipe)

• Servings: 4-5
• Preparation time:10-12 minutes.
• Cooking time:12-15 minutes.
• Seasoning time: 6-7 minutes.
• Total time: 34 minutes. 

It was chilli winter when we stayed our hometown in Bihar; winter is the favourite season for vegetable lovers. Reason? There are so many green leafy vegetables are available, Bathua (Chenopodium Album) is one of them.

The recipe for today is based on  ‘Bathua (Chenopodium Album)’ which has better nutritional value than spinach, rich in vitamins and minerals.

“Bathua (Chenopodium Album) Spicy Marsagga/Soup (chhaunka, a village recipe)” is unique, remarkable village recipe from Bihar, I know some of you might not heard about this recipe before, I too.

The recipe is very healthy to consume; piping hot  soup very comforting  in chilly winter…

It is high in fiber having vitamins and minerals.

Ingredients:

• Bathua (Chenopodium Album): 250 gm.
• Garlic: 2 pods
• Ginger: 1” piece
• Red chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
• Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
• Green chilli: 1 no.
• Cumin: 1 teaspoon
• Ajwain(Carom seed): 1/2 teaspoon
• Red chilli: 2 no.
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt: 1 teaspoon
• Bay leaf: 2 no.
• Mustard oil: 2-3 tablespoon
• Rice: 200 gm.(to prepare rice starch: 500-600ml).

Preparation:

1. Prepare rice starch like pasta.
2. Rinse the rice, keep aside.
3. Fill the pot with water (1.2- 1.3 litre) just like you do with pasta. Bring it to a boil, add the rice.
4. Maintain boiling at low flame. Boil uncovered without stirring until the rice is softened or done. Drain the starch through a fine mesh strainer. Store the drained starch, keep aside.
5. Chop green chilli, garlic and ginger, keep aside.
6. Wash and chop Bathua saag, roughly, keep aside.

Method:

1. Take a frypan/ Kadhai; put bathua saag, chopped green chilli, ginger and half quantity of garlic with a cup of water. Cook on medium flame for 10-12 minutes or until it get soften. Lower the flame add salt;  continue to cook and pulverize this with wooden roller or hand blender to make course paste( it takes about 2-3 minutes), keep aside.
2. Take another frypan, heat oil, put cumin, red chilli, bay leaf, sputter for few seconds. Add remaining garlic and ajwain, stir fry for few seconds. Add powder masala, just stir, add cooked blended saag and drained starch. Let it boil for couple of minutes; put off the flame.
3. Serve as a soup with dollop of ghee (clarified butter) or butter.
4. Customarily in our village it is often served with “Steamed Rice” and “Aaloo Bhujia” as comforting meal.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Bathua (Chenopodium Album) Spicy Marsagga/Soup (chhaunka, a village recipe) by Nag Ratna Sahu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.