Sarson-Based Indian Cooking Guide

How sarson shows up in the kitchen

• Sarson is the Hindi word for mustard, covering the plant, its seeds, its greens and the oil pressed from the seed, all of which show up across Indian cooking.
• Mustard oil is the everyday cooking fat in much of the east and north, used both for tempering and as the primary oil in a dish.
• Mustard seeds, black or yellow, are a tempering staple, popped in hot oil at the start of countless recipes.
• Sarson ka saag, made from mustard greens rather than the seed or oil, is a separate but related dish from the same plant family.
• Across all of these, heating mustard oil to a light smoke before cooking is the one technique step worth remembering regardless of dish.

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Sarson cooking questions

Is sarson ka saag made with mustard oil?

It is traditionally cooked in mustard oil, though the dish itself is named for mustard greens, a separate part of the plant.

Do you sell mustard greens or mustard seeds directly?

We press mustard seeds into black and yellow mustard oil rather than selling greens or loose seed.

Is sarson always mustard, or sometimes something else?

In Indian cooking, sarson consistently refers to mustard, whether the seed, the oil or the greens depending on context.

What is the one technique that matters across sarson dishes?

Heating mustard oil to a light smoke before cooking, which mellows its raw pungency across nearly every traditional use.