Haak (Kashmiri Greens)हाख
⏱ Prep 10m🍳 Cook 20m🍽 Serves 4🌿 Vegan
Video: orzoo kitchen (YouTube)
Haak is the soul of a Kashmiri kitchen — leafy greens cooked in fragrant mustard oil with just a few spices and nothing more. It appears on the Kashmiri table every day alongside rice, and its simplicity is entirely deliberate: this is food that centres the vegetable, not the spice. The greens used are haak itself, a collard-like variety native to the Kashmir Valley, but any sturdy leafy green delivers the same honest result.
📍 Make it in Plano
This recipe is the same everywhere — but where you buy the ingredients and eat the dish is local to you.
Finding Desi spots near Plano…
Ingredients
- ▪haak greens or curly kale or collard greens, washed800g
- ▪mustard oil3 tbsp
- ▪asafoetida (hing)¼ tsp
- ▪dry Kashmiri red chilies3–4
- ▪garlic cloves, halved (optional)3
- ▪water100ml
- ▪salt1½ tsp
🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
- Genuine haak greens are rarely found outside Kashmir; substitute curly kale, collard greens, or mustard greens — all deliver the same deep, slightly bitter character. Baby spinach is too soft and turns watery.
- Mustard oil is essential. Outside South Asia, find cold-pressed mustard oil at South Asian or Middle Eastern grocery stores. Heat it to the smoke point first to tame its sharpness before cooking.
- Asafoetida is available at most Indian grocers online. If unavailable, a small pinch of garlic powder stirred in at the end approximates the earthy base note.
Method
- 1Wash the greens in several changes of cold water. Trim tough lower stems; roughly tear large leaves in half.
- 2Heat mustard oil in a large kadhai over high heat until it just smokes. Pull off the heat for 30 seconds, then return to medium heat.
- 3Add the dry red chilies and let them darken for 20 seconds. Add asafoetida and stir once.
- 4Add the greens all at once — they will splutter. Add salt and the water. Stir, cover, and cook on medium-high for 5 minutes until the greens wilt completely.
- 5Uncover, add garlic halves if using, and cook over medium heat for a further 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the greens are fully tender and most water has evaporated. The dish should be moist but not watery.
- 6Taste for salt. The mustard oil flavour should be prominent — do not substitute without expecting a different dish. Serve alongside steamed rice.
A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.