Palak Paneer- a popular Indian curry made with spinach and cottage cheese.
Palak paneer is a classic combination of spinach and paneer , mostly popular in North India. The dish is creamy and mildly spiced, it is served with a drizzle of cream and butter to add richness and to enhance the taste. This is among the most ordered dish of Indian restaurant’s.
The recipe is quite simple and easy to follow. You don’t need many spices and too much stir frying of the spices is also not needed. It is a good recipes to incorporate spinach in the curry even the fussy eaters will happily have this curry. Kids you often refuse to have spinach in any forms will happily have this with paneer.
This palak paneer recipe is much easier to make than any other paneer recipe , you just have to follow the process properly.
If you are vegan then use tofu and instead of heavy cream use almond cream , coconut cream , cashew cream or milk. You can make the spinach puree and keep refrigerated up to 3- 4 days and temper it when needed to serve.
Tips to make perfect palak paneer-
- first of all remove the hard stems else the gravy taste slightly bitter and then wash it properly 3-4 times.
- BLanch spinach in hot boiling water for 3-4 minutes and then remove from hot water and add in a bowl of ice cold water to stop cooking further.
- Use soft paneer and soak in lukewarm water, I don’t fry the paneer for palak paneer, but you can do if preferred but don’t over fry it else it become hard and chewy.
- As this is a no onion garlic recipes i used some soaked cashew and gram flour to add creaminess in the curry.
- Addition of cream is optional but Iit do enhance the taste, you can add milk or home made malai instead
- Palak paneer is mostly served with naan , kulcha and jeera rice .
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Palak Paneer
Ingredients
- 6 cup Spinach /palak chopped
- 250 gm Cottage cheese / Paneer
- 2 Green Chillies / Hari Mirch
- 1 inch Ginger / Adrak
- 1/4 cup Cashew Nuts / Kaju
The curry
- 4 tbsp Oil or ghee
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds / Sabut Jeera
- pinch Asafoetida / Hing powder
- 1 big Tomatoes / Tamatar
- 1/3 tsp Garam Masala Powder
- 1 tsp Dried Fenugreek / Kasoori Methi
- 1/2 tsp Red Chilli powder / Laal mirch powder
- to taste Salt / Namak
- 1/4 tsp Black Salt / Kala Namak
- 1/3 tsp Turmeric Powder / Haldi Powder
- 1 tsp Sugar / Chini
- 1/4 cup Heavy cream/ Malai
- 1.5 tsp Lemon Juice / Nimbu Ka Ras
- 1.5 tsp Gram flour / Besan
Instructions
- Wash the spinach 3-4 times in enough water and remove the hard thick stems.
- Soak cashews in lukewarm water for 10 minutes.
- Boil enough water in a big pan and add 1 tsp sugar in it and add spinach in the boiling water.boil for 3-4 minutes and then drain.
- Add the spinach in ice cold water to stop cooking further and to retain the bright green colour.
- Now squeeze the spinach and grind in the mixer jar , add green chilies, ginger and soaked cashews along with the spinach.
- Now heat oil or ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds, hing and 1.5 tsp gram flour and roast it on low heat till golden in colour.
- Add kasoori methi , crushed tomato and all the dry spices(except garam masala) and cook on low heat.
- Now add the spinach puree and stir to mix, add water or milk to adjust the consistency as per your liking.(if needed)
- Cover and cook for around 5 minutes or till it start bubbling , no need to cook for long as the spinach is already cooked.
- Add the cubed paneer ,sugar ,garam masala and cream and cook just for 2 minutes.
- After that switch off the heat.add lemon juice and mix well.
- Before serving you can also garnish with ghee and cumin tadka on top
- Serve with naan, roti or jeera rice and enjoy