Explore the unique flavours of summer greens from the east

There’s something wondrous about the soft-stemmed, glossy oval leaves of Basella Alba, the beloved pui. “For most people, the go-to meal is ‘pakhala-saaga’, the everyday fermented rice gruel typically eaten with seasonal greens,” says Gurgaon-based food writer Shweta Mohapatra, who promotes rare greens from her home state on Odia Food Stories. The bitter shoots of helencha or watercress that are batter fried to a golden crisp or added to shuktos; the tiny circular leaves of thankuni or Indian pennywort blanched and grounded into a paste to make pata bata; the slender gima shaak or carpetweed fried into bora or fritters; punko shaak, a variety of amaranthus cooked along with pumpkin or brinjals in a garlic and nigella seed tempering are some of the many greens that excite the traditional cook this season. The many flavours of Assamese ‘xaak’ Leafy greens are said to build immunity In Assam, jute leaves or titamora paat, are tied in knots and stir-fried in mustard oil with crushed garlic. But what makes the season special is ‘ekho-ek bidh xaak’, a selection of 101 varieties of leafy greens, usually foraged from the wild, that are intrinsic to Rongali Bihu celebrations in April.