Palak Paneer / Spinach with Indian Cottage Cheese.

Palak paneer is one of the protein packed dish with healthy spinach in it. It is usually made on special occasions with puri, roti or even with pulao rice. Paneer is so delicious,protein rich but also high in fat so make sure you eat in moderation. Usually in Palak paneer a lot of butter and cream is used but for me Paneer is exotic enough I didn't use both butter and cream. But if you have guests coming over feel free to add them for the richness of the dish but for our everyday cooking I don't think that calorie dense butter or cream is needed. Let me show you how to prepare tasty and delicious palak paneer.

Palak paneer

I used camera flash to show you the glossy bright green finish of the curry

Ingredients:

Paneer - 200gms cubed

Onion - 1 small finely chopped

Tomato - 1 medium finely chopped

Green chillies - 2 spicy

Spinach - 250gms or more to your taste

Garlic- 2 big cloves 

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Amchur powder - to taste

Red chilly powder - to taste

Salt- to taste

Oil - 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp

Masala:

Cloves - 2 

Cardamom - 1

Cinnamon- 1 inch piece

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

Fresh ground masala

Bright green and glossy spinach puree

Method:

1. Take 1tsp oil into a pan and add garlic,ginger,green chilly .Fry them for couple of minutes and then add spinach.

2. Once the spinach is wilted take them into a blender and grind into a mixture

3. Now in the same pan add remaining oil, add cumin seeds. let them splutter then add onions.

4. Fry them till they are slightly pinkish brown, meanwhile grind all the ingredients listed under masala into fine powder

5. Once the onions are done , add the masala and stir it well for 10 secs till you get awesome aroma.

6. Immediately add the chopped tomatoes and mix well. Cook till they get mushy

7. Now add the ground spinach puree. Cook them till the raw smell goes away.

8. Add Red chilly powder, amchur powder , salt to taste. Add cubed paneer.

9. Delicately mix paneer into the gravy, cook covered with lid for 5 mins and serve hot with rice/roti.

Tips :

1. To save time I used store bought paneer but you can make fresh paneer at home.

2. Also you can grind onions and tomatoes in the spinach puree if you like but I like to have chunky gravy.

3. Instead of grinding masala you can instant store bought garam masala and coriander powder but fresh ground powder gives that extra flavor and taste

4. Frying the spinach before grinding gives that bright green and glossy finish. see the pictures for       that bright green color and glossy finish.

5. For this recipe you can entirely replace paneer with chole/chick peas to make chole palak :)

Stay Healthy Stay Happy