Peppery, fast-cooking greens — sarson ka saag, and high in almost everything.
Mustard greens carry the same pungent compounds as mustard seed, which is where the
peppery bite comes from. Cooking mellows it considerably.
They are extremely high in
vitamins K, A and C, good in folate, and low in oxalates, so their calcium absorbs
well.
In North India they are the basis of sarson ka saag, traditionally cooked long
and slow with makki di roti — a pairing that turns out to be nutritionally coherent as
well as delicious.
Per 100g raw.
Based on the nutrients and fibre this food supplies. These are supporting foods, not treatments.
They shrink dramatically. A huge bunch cooks down to a small
bowl.
Cook fast for bite, slow for saag. Both are correct —
different dishes.
Add fat. The vitamins A and K are fat-soluble, so
ghee or oil genuinely improves what you absorb.
Wash them three times.
Mustard greens hold grit stubbornly.
Vitamins A and K are fat-soluble, meaning they need dietary fat present to be absorbed.
Greens cooked with ghee or oil deliver considerably more usable vitamin A than the same greens
boiled and drained.
The traditional saag preparation — long cooking with fat,
served alongside a maize roti — hits this without anyone having planned it that
way.
On blood thinners: high in vitamin K, which interacts with warfarin.
You do not have to avoid it — keep intake steady rather than swinging week to week, and
tell your doctor.
Kidney disease: potassium may need limiting. Ask your doctor for your
numbers.
IBS: several vegetables are high-FODMAP and commonly trigger
symptoms — tolerance is personal.
This is information, not a prescription. If you are managing a diagnosed condition or taking medication, talk to your doctor before making a large change to your diet.
Nutrition figures on this page come from standard food composition data. These links let you check the numbers and read the underlying research yourself rather than taking our word for it.