Bathua

chenopodium greens

Winter's quiet green, gathered from the field's edge.

What it is

Bathua is a winter leafy green — soft, mild and faintly earthy — that grows readily, often as a volunteer weed at the edges of fields. Cooked down like spinach, it collapses to a tender green with a gentle, mineral taste, milder than mustard greens.

Where it comes from

It belongs to the winter cooking of the northern plains, gathered in the cool months and cooked into greens, folded into breads, or stirred into yogurt. It joins mustard greens in the north's great winter saag.

What it's called

Bathua · bathua saag · a chenopodium (akin to lamb's quarters).

In the kitchen

Cooked down with mustard greens into sarson ka saag, stirred into raita, or worked into paratha dough. It wilts to a fraction of its volume and softens quickly. A gentle green that rounds out the sharper mustard leaf in a winter saag.

What we know about the claims

Bathua is a nutritious leafy green with iron and vitamins; like several leafy greens it contains oxalates, which matters only in very large, regular quantities. An everyday winter vegetable.

Choosing and buying

Fresh bathua appears seasonally in South Asian grocers (UK and US) in winter; spinach is the nearest everyday substitute for its role in a saag. Wash thoroughly.