Chaulai and Kulfa Saag: Red Amaranth and Purslane Greens Guide
When palak goes thin and bitter in the heat, two cheaper greens take over the summer bazaar: chaulai (amaranth, often sold as “red spinach” or lal saag) and kulfa (purslane). Buy them for the tender tops, skip the woody stems, and cook them the same day. Below: how to pick both, the truth about the red colour, the oxalate note, how to harvest leafy vegetables like these at home, and two simple saag and dal recipes.
Quick facts
- Chaulai: amaranth leaves, green or red, soft and mild, a little earthy.
- Kulfa: purslane, small thick fleshy leaves on reddish stems, lemony and slightly slippery.
- Season: hot months, roughly April to September, across Pakistan and North India.
- Keeps: 2 to 3 days in the fridge, wrapped and dry. Both wilt fast.
- Caution: both are high in oxalate. Stone formers, read the caution box.
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How to pick chaulai and kulfa at the stall
These are sold in loose heaps or tied bunches, often roots and all, and if the bunch is old and stalky, much of what you paid for ends up in the bin, because only the soft tops and the leaves near them are worth cooking. Check first.
- Look at the tops first. You want lots of young leaves at the growing tips. The top 10 to 15 cm of each stem is the part you’ll actually cook.
- Bend a stem. A good chaulai stem snaps cleanly near the top. If the stems are thick, stringy and bend without breaking, the plant is old and most of the weight is waste.
- Check for flowers. Chaulai starts sending up fuzzy seed spikes as it ages. A few small ones are fine. Big, tall spikes mean tougher, more bitter leaves.
- Press a kulfa leaf. Fresh kulfa leaves are plump and firm, like tiny jade pieces. Soft, wrinkled or yellow leaves mean it’s been sitting in the heat.
- Look underneath. Turn a few leaves over, and skip bunches with lots of holes, sticky patches or tiny insects clustered under the leaves.
- Smell it. Fresh greens smell clean. A sour, rotting smell from the middle of the heap means the whole lot has sweated in the sun.
- Buy for today or tomorrow. Plan to cook within a day. Summer greens don’t keep well.
Red vs green chaulai
Red chaulai has deep red or purple leaves, or green leaves with a red centre, while green chaulai is plain green, and they taste almost the same, cook in the same time and do the same job in saag or dal, though the red kind can be a touch earthier. Freshness matters more than colour.
The red-leaf dye myth
A common worry: “I washed my red spinach and the water turned pink. Is it dyed?” No.
Myth: Red chaulai is coloured with dye to make it sell
The truth: the red comes from the plant itself. Amaranth makes natural red-purple pigments called betalains, the same family of pigments that makes beetroot red. They dissolve in water, so the washing water, your hands and the cooked dal can all turn pink or purple. That’s normal and harmless. People believe the myth because colour bleeding into water looks like dye running out of cloth. A real sign of trouble would be an odd chemical smell or colour that doesn’t match the plant, and that’s rare with leafy greens. There’s no reliable home test for dyes, so buy from a seller you trust and don’t taste anything that smells wrong.
Pink washing water isn’t a scam. It’s the same kind of pigment that makes beetroot red.
Wash, strip and store
Do this the day you buy them.
- Strip the leaves and tender tips off the stems. Keep thin stems near the top (they cook soft); throw away thick, woody lower stems and roots.
- Wash in a big bowl of cold water. Swish, lift the leaves out, and repeat with fresh water 2 or 3 times until no soil settles at the bottom. Kulfa grows flat on the ground, so it’s often sandy.
- Rinse under running water. Plain water only. No soap, bleach or lal dawa.
- Drain well and pat dry if you’re not cooking right away.
- Store: wrap in a dry cotton cloth or paper towel inside a loose bag in the fridge, where chaulai lasts 2 to 3 days and kulfa about the same, or a little longer if you leave it unwashed until the day you cook it.
Both can be blanched for 1 minute, squeezed and frozen in flat bags for later saag, the same way we describe in the leafy greens storage guide. Frozen kulfa goes soft and loses its crunch, so freeze it only for cooking.
How to harvest leafy vegetables like these at home
Both grow easily in a pot or a patch of soil in summer, and kulfa often turns up on its own as a weed in gardens, cracks in paving and the edges of fields, so if you cut rather than pull, one planting can feed you for weeks. Here’s how.
- Chaulai: once plants are about 20 to 25 cm tall, pinch off the top 10 to 15 cm of each stem. New side shoots will grow, and you can pick again every week or two. Pull the plant once it’s mostly seed spikes.
- Kulfa: cut stems a few centimetres above the ground, leaving some leaves behind so it regrows.
- Pick in the cool part of the morning, before the sun hits the bed, and get the greens into shade or the fridge quickly, because a bunch left on a hot kitchen counter can go limp in under an hour.
Be sure of what you pick. A common weed called spurge (dudhi) grows flat on the ground in the same places as wild kulfa and looks a bit similar from a distance, but it’s harmful to eat, and children playing in the garden can mix them up easily. Break a stem: spurge oozes white milky sap, and kulfa doesn’t. Kulfa leaves are also much thicker and fleshier. Don’t pick from roadsides, drains or sprayed fields. When in doubt, buy it instead.
What these greens give you
A cooked katori of either green is low in calories and adds useful fibre. Chaulai leaves are a good source of vitamin A (as beta-carotene), vitamin C, folate and vitamin K, with more calcium than most leafy greens, though oxalate means you absorb only part of it. Kulfa is unusual. Among leafy greens, it carries a little plant omega-3 (ALA), plus vitamins A and C and potassium. Its amounts of omega-3 are small next to walnuts or alsi, so it’s no swap for fish oil.
What’s hype: neither green “cools the blood”, flushes anything out or reverses a health problem. They’re cheap, nourishing summer greens. Reason enough.
In many homes, kulfa is a summer green thought of as “thanda”, cooling, cooked into dal or with aloo when the heat peaks, and chaulai is fried with garlic and eaten with roti. The “cooling” idea is tradition from humoral food thinking, and there’s no measured cooling effect, though a light, watery vegetable dish with dal and a little rice is certainly easier to face in June than a heavy meat curry. If someone has heat exhaustion signs (dizziness, vomiting, confusion, very hot skin), no food fix is enough: move them to shade, cool them and get medical help.
Two simple recipes
Chaulai ka saag with garlic (serves 3)
Wash and chop 500 g chaulai leaves and tender tips. Heat 1 tbsp mustard or other oil, add 4 sliced garlic cloves and 1 dry red chilli, and fry until the garlic is pale gold. Add 1 chopped onion, cook 3 minutes, then the leaves and ½ tsp salt. Stir until wilted, cover and cook 5 to 7 minutes on low. Finish with a squeeze of lemon. Eat with roti or rice.
Kulfa ki dal (serves 4)
Boil 1 cup moong or masoor dal in 3½ cups water with ½ tsp haldi until soft. Separately, heat 1 tbsp oil, add 1 tsp zeera, 1 chopped onion and 1 tsp ginger garlic paste, then 1 chopped tomato and ½ tsp red chilli. Add 2 cups (about 150 g) cleaned kulfa leaves and cook 3 minutes. Stir into the dal, simmer 5 minutes, and add salt to taste.
Try it raw
Tender kulfa leaves add a lemony crunch to raita, the kind of sour, cool bite that works beside a spicy summer dal or a plate of plain rice when nobody wants to cook much. Stir a handful of well-washed leaves into 1 cup of whisked dahi with salt and roasted zeera. Keep raw portions small if you’re watching oxalate.
Surprising facts
- The rajgira (ramdana) eaten on fast days is amaranth seed, from close relatives of the leafy chaulai plant.
- Kulfa picked at dawn tastes more sour than kulfa picked in the afternoon, because the plant saves water in the heat by taking in air at night, storing it as sour acids, and using them up again in daylight.
- Amaranth, palak, beetroot and bathua all sit in the same plant family, which is why all four share the oxalate caution.
Red spinach side effects: who should limit these greens
You’ve had kidney stones: both chaulai and kulfa are high in oxalate, like palak. Ask your doctor how much suits you. Boiling and draining the water, and eating them with dahi, lowers the oxalate you absorb. See our kidney stone diet guide.
You have kidney disease: both are rich in potassium. Ask your kidney team first.
You take warfarin: like all dark greens, these carry vitamin K. Keep your intake steady rather than swinging between none and lots, and let the doctor checking your INR know about big diet changes.
Babies: cooked, mashed greens are fine from 6 months with no salt added, made fresh each time rather than kept warm for hours or reheated from yesterday’s pot.
Stomach upset: a large serving of any new green can cause gas or loose motions. Start with a small katori.
More seasonal produce guides live in our Fruits and Vegetables section, and winter’s bathua has its own saag and raita guide.
Chaulai and kulfa: common questions
What are the side effects of red spinach?
For most people, none at normal cooked amounts. The main caution is oxalate for people who form kidney stones, plus potassium for kidney disease and vitamin K for anyone on warfarin. The pink colour in the water is natural and harmless.
Is red spinach the same as palak?
No. “Red spinach” in markets is usually red amaranth (lal chaulai), a different plant from palak, though they’re in the same family. It’s softer and milder, and grows in summer when palak doesn’t do well.
What is kulfa called in English?
Purslane. Kulfa is purslane. In some places it’s also called khurfa or loni. The botanical name is Portulaca oleracea.
What are the benefits of leafy vegetables like chaulai?
Vitamins, minerals and fibre for very few calories. They add vitamins A, C, K and folate, fibre and potassium, and they’re cheap and in season in the hot months when palak and most winter greens have disappeared from the market. They support a healthy diet, but they don’t fix any illness on their own.
Why does chaulai turn the water pink?
Red amaranth contains natural red pigments called betalains that dissolve in water. It’s the same effect you see with beetroot. It isn’t dye.
How do I harvest amaranth leaves so they regrow?
Pinch off the top 10 to 15 cm of each stem once the plant is about 20 to 25 cm tall. Side shoots grow back and you can pick again in a week or two.
Can I eat kulfa raw?
Yes. Tender leaves are eaten raw in raita and salads in many places. Wash them very well, since they grow close to the soil, and keep portions modest if you’ve had kidney stones.
Are chaulai stems edible?
Only the thin ones. The tender stems near the top cook soft with the leaves. Thick lower stems are woody and stringy, so throw them out.
Can pregnant women eat chaulai or kulfa?
Yes. Cooked, as part of normal meals. Wash them well and cook them thoroughly, and ask your doctor if you have a kidney condition.
How do I tell kulfa from a poisonous weed?
Snap a stem. Kulfa has clear, watery sap and thick, fleshy leaves; spurge, the common lookalike, oozes white milky sap. If you’re unsure, don’t eat it.