Easiest Palak Paneer recipe
Palak Paneer is a very popular Indian dish that combines creamy cottage cheese (paneer) with a vibrant spinach gravy. Paneer is one of the favorite thing to eat for most Indian’s and rightly so because it has such a creamy mouthfeel and slightly stretchy texture.
This was a vehicle used by our mum to get some spinach into us as the only way we will eat spinach is if its loaded with paneer and now I use it for my kids, though I love this dish as much as (if not more) than they do.
This recipe guarantees an authentic and delicious result while providing substitution notes for those who want to experiment with alternative ingredients. Going with my motto to simplify cooking as much as possible without compromising on flavor, I have used frozen spinach and canned tomatoes here, you can see notes if you want to use fresh spinach and tomatoes. Let’s get started!
Palak Paneer
Ingredients
- 500 gm Frozen spinach thawed
- 300 gm Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) cut into rectangular pieces
- 1 large Onion finely chopped
- 1 large Garlic clove minced
- 1 inch Ginger grated
- 1 Green chilly optional
- 1 cup Canned diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1.5 tsp Garam masala
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 0.5 tsp Red chilli powder
- 1.5 tsp Salt adjust according to your taste
Instructions
- Cook the spinach: Put the spinach and tomatoes in a saucepan or a put with half cup of water (thawed frozen spinach will already have some water, add ½ cup of water in addition to that), cover the pot with a lid and put it on medium heat and cook for 7-10 minutes (5 more minutes after the water boils)
- Prepare the paneer: Heat 2 tablespoon of ghee in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the paneer cubes and fry until golden brown on all sides. Remove the paneer from the pan and set aside.
- Make the palak paneer gravy: In the same pan, heat the remaining ghee. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add chopped onions and sauté until golden brown. Add minced garlic, grated ginger, and green chilies (I skip the chilly when cooking for my kids). Sauté for a minute. Stir in the salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and garam masala. Mix well and cook for 1 minute.
- Puree the spinach and Incorporate: Use a hand blender to puree the spinach and tomatoes, you may need to add ½ up more water. Add the spinach puree to the pan and mix it with the spices, let it simmer for 3 minutes. If the gravy still appears too thick, add a little water to adjust the consistency.
- Add paneer and finish cooking: Gently add the fried paneer cubes to the spinach gravy. Stir well, ensuring that the paneer is coated with the flavors. Cover the pan and simmer for another 2 minutes to allow the flavors to meld together.
Notes
- Ghee- Instead of ghee, you can use any oil.
- Vegan- To make this vegan you can use hard tofu
- Paneer-You can use homemade paneer instead of the store bought one as its even more yummy.
- Spinach- Fresh spinach can be used instead of frozen spinach, but wash it really well (it can be notoriously dirty), remove stems and chop the leaves roughly. I won’t recommend using baby spinach (tried and tested) as it does not give the same flavor.
- Peeling tomato- If you are using fresh tomatoes, I recommend pealing and chopping them before adding. To peal a fresh tomatoes, put a slight cross cut on the bottom and then put them in hot/boiling water for a minute, then drain the water using a colander, wash the tomatoes under cold water and then peel.
- Storage- Will easily keep for 3 days in the fridge. It’s a good recipe to freeze as well, upto 2 months in the freezer.
- Ginger-garlic- you can use the ginger garlic paste from an Indian shop, its now available in big supermarkets like Woolworths as well.