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Try this easy Vegan Baked Chana Saag recipe! A fragrant Spinach and Chickpea Curry cooked in one casserole dish along with onion, tomatoes & warming spices. Such a comforting meal served with rice or any bread of your choice. Gluten-free Soyfree Nutfree.
Today we are cooking a baked version of this Indian classic. Chana Saag – an aromatic and perfectly spiced chickpea spinach/greens curry made in the oven!
We are taking a classic Indian curry normally made on the stovetop using chickpeas, spinach or greens, onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, and warm spices and turn it into an easy 1-dish casserole recipe. Making this in the oven means no standing around!
This is a great recipe you can make whenever you need to use up greens! Spinach is a quintessential ingredient, but other than that you can add any leafy greens you have in your fridge. Think chard or mustard greens.
You will love how easy this is to make and the recipe is totally adaptable to your taste. Served with warm bread or steamed basmati rice this really makes for a perfect weeknight meal.
This is not only the ideal dish for busy weeknights. Being a real crowd-pleaser recipe, this baked chana saag could also be made ahead, and stored in the fridge and will surely be a hit at gatherings and parties. Meal-prep win!
For variation, you can use other cooked beans of choice, or add some red lentils, or use tofu or soycurls!
More baked curries:
- Baked Sweet Potato Curry
- South Indian Eggplant Curry Recipe (Baked Casserole)
- Baked Tofu Curry (Easy Tofu Makhani)
- Vegan Baked Chana Pulao- Spiced Chickpea Rice Casserole
- Veggie curry casserole
- Lentil curry casserole
- Madras tofu curry
Vegan Baked Chana Saag
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/8 teaspoons fenugreek seeds, (or use 1/2 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves and add with onion)
- 1 clove, optional
- 1 or 2 bay leaves
- 1 dried red chili, broken or use 1/4 teaspoon pepper flakes
- 3/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 inch ginger minced
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 ounces frozen spinach or chopped, (defrost if using frozen)
- 4 ounces chopped greens such as fresh chard, ,mustard greens or other baby greens, or use more spinach
- 8 ounce tomato puree, (or unseasoned tomato sauce )
- 15 oz can coconut milk, full fat or light or other non-dairy milk of choice , thicker cashew milk or oat milk work well
- 15- ounce can chickpeas drained or 1.5 cups cooked
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- pepper flakes,, lemon juice, and cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- In a 9×11 or similar size baking dish, add the oil and spread evenly. Add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, clove, bay leaves, and mix.
- Put it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (205 degrees Celsius) to cook for 6-8 minutes or until the cumin seeds are fragrant. Keep an eye on them so they donโt burn.
- Remove the dish from the oven then add in the red chilies and mix in. Add in the onion, garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, and a generous pinch of salt and mix well. Add some splashes of water if spices arenโt sticking to the onion and mix
- Then put the dish back in the oven to bake for 11-15 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
- Take the dish out of the oven. Add in the spinach, greens, tomato puree, chickpeas, salt, coconut milk and mix really well.
- If using fresh greens, then they will take a minute to kind of mix in and get coevered in the sauce. You want the greens to be covered with the sauce otherwise they will get crispy. Cover with parchment.
- Put the dish back in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Mix once in between so that all the greens get cooked evenly.
- Take the dish out of the oven. Taste and adjust salt and spices and mix in. Garnish and serve over rice or naan, or flatbread.For creamier, mix in 2-3 tablespoons non dairy yogurt while still hot. For flavor variation, add in 1 teaspoon garam masala or Kashmiri garam masala or 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves ( kasoori methi) while still hot.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients:
- we start by toasting whole spices in some oil: cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, clove, bay leaves and dried red chili. This step is called tempering
- chopped onion, garlic and ginger are added to the tempering
- ground spices: ground coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper
- greens: a mix of frozen spinach and chopped leafy greens such as fresh chard, or mustard greens
- tomato puree adds fruitiness and acidity
- coconut milk adds creaminess. You can use any other non-dairy milk or cream of choice
- chickpeas – I used canned drained chickpeas but you can cook the chickpeas yourself
Tips:
- Chana Saag tastes even better the next day when all the flavors had infused well, so go ahead and make a double batch
- Play around with the amount of tomato and coconut milk. You can easily make it creamier or more tomatoey to preference by adding more coconut cream or tomato puree as it bakes.
- You can make this dish with other proteins such as tofu or vegan chicken.
- To make with tofu, add pressed and cubed 14-ounce tofu along with the onion mixture so that the tofu can crisp up a little bit as well and then add the greens and the rest of the ingredients.
- To make it with the vegan chicken substitute, add the chicken sub with the greens. Use 3 oz rehydrated in stock soy curls or 4 oz seitan
- To make with split red lentils (masoor dal): add 1/2 cup red lentils and 1 cup water and continue with the recipe
How to make Baked Vegan Chana Saag:
In a 9×11 or similar size baking dish, add the oil and spread evenly. Add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, clove, bay leaves, and mix.
Put it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (205 degrees Celsius) to cook for 6-8 minutes or until the cumin seeds are fragrant.
Remove the dish from the oven then add the red chilies and mix in. Add in the onion, garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, and a generous pinch of salt and mix well.
Then put the dish back in the oven to bake for 11-15 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
Take the dish out of the oven.
Add in the spinach, greens, tomato puree, chickpeas, salt, coconut milk and mix really well.
If using fresh greens, then they will take a minute to kind of mix in and get covered in the sauce. You want the greens to be covered with the sauce otherwise they will get crispy.
Cover with parchment and Put the dish back in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Mix once in between so that all the greens get cooked evenly.
Take the dish out of the oven. Garnish and serve over rice or naan, or flatbread.
Storage:
You can refrigerate the baked casserole for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to a month
What to serve with Chana Saag?
You can with warm pita bread, roti, or Naan or homemade parathas.For a gluten-free meal, serve with basmati rice or brown rice
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very delicious! This recipe is easy to customize so I will definitely make it again.
Yay!
Delicious! Easy to make. Really like the one dish baking approach. The first two steps to prep the spices and onion really make the flavors outstanding. My wife raved about how good it was. Itโs a nice addition to the cauliflower Tikka Marsala and Aloo Saag that I make. Looking forward to more healthy Indian recipes!
So glad you liked it!
This recipe was so easy and incredibly delicious. I am always a little more generous with the spices, but the creaminess of the dish is incredible. I will definitely be making this again and am excited to try others. Make this w basmati rice and the Almond flour naan recipe. What a treat. ๐
Yay
Another great recipe! We had this tonight with basmati rice. Husband approved.
I didnโt quite have enough fresh kale so used some frozen kale that I had in the freezer. Worked fine.
Iโm a big fan of recipes with coconut milk!
oh great! yes, frozen kale works well, too! glad you enjoyed. please don’t forget to rate out of 5 stars, it really helps!
I have never commented on an on-line recipe before, but this recipe prompted me to do so! I’ve made it twice in 2 weeks. It is perfectly seasoned (read 5 y.o. friendly). I appreciate your recipes. Thank you!
thank you for commenting! it really helps. so glad you liked this recipe!
I love how easy and delicious this one turned out. We love all of your Indian cuisines, but this one is always well received by my younger daughter. I think it’s the slightly creamy sweetness, and the fact that it’s not as spicy as I usually make things. It’s a great way to get your greens in, that’s for sure. While it was in the oven baking I made some brown rice in the instant pot and some homemade naan to go with it.
awesome!! ๐
I have made this once a week for the last few months. It’s so easy to make and that is what I like. I don’t have a lot of patience for complicated recipes. My family loves it, too. My daughter is a fanatic about getting lots of vegetables every day in her meals, including breakfast, and she really likes this recipe.Every morning it’s surprising to see how she combines what’s in the frig and makes a bowl or a burrito for her breakfast.
Thank you so much for the kind comment, Catherine! ๐
This looks amazing- Iโm just wondering, for a mid week meal to save on back and forth, do you think I could combine steps 1-4, ie stick all ingredients in at the same time for roasting? Thanks for the most delicious vegan recipes on the internet ๐
Yes you can. Just toast it all together
Sorry, this didnโt work for us at all. It tasted really bland. It smelled amazing but was super tasteless – I donโt understand what happened?
Iโve just bought your IP book so am hoping my forays into that work out better.
Many people have made this without issues( many more tags on social than reviews here) . Maybe yours needed more salt? Maybe you forgot the salt or some spices? Salt brings out the flavors. Maybe the spices were were old so youโd need to double or triple them, as the flavor payoff reduces quite a bit witb age. Just mix in the spices and salt and see if it it helps the flavor. We can fix it! If you look through the blog and 1500 of the recipes,and my earlier books, bland isnt a complaint and when it is, it usually is another issue like mentioned above. Itโs not the recipe ๐ I can always help troubleshoot when needed. Ping me on social if you run into issues with the book recipes!