Ashraf’s Tomato Saag

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Preparation info
  • Serves

    6 to 8

    as a main or 8 to 10 as a side dish
    • Difficulty

      Medium

    • Ready in

      1 hr 45

Appears in
Third Culture Cooking: Classic Recipes for a New Generation

By Zaynab Issa

Published 2025

  • About

One of my earliest tactile memories of food is the feeling of my pruning fingers as I finely chopped my way through fifteen-plus pounds of Roma tomatoes to help make this tomato saag (tameta nu shaak in Gujarati) for a family breakfast.

My grandmother Ashraf is known for her elaborate yet seemingly effortless cooking style, and, in many ways, this dish personifies her. Cooking is her love language, and she’s the type to spend her Friday evenings finely chopping up p