Palak means spinach in Hindi, and paneer is the Indian cottage cheese. It’s a simple curry prepared with blanched spinach and cottage cheese, hence the name. Palak paneer is a healthy side with the goodness of vitamins and minerals from the spinach and protein from the paneer. We prefer medium-spicy palak paneer so that the kiddo can also enjoy it. You can make this curry even on a weekday as the chopping involved is significantly less, and once you blanch the spinach, you can then whip up the curry quickly. I usually don’t add any masalas to this recipe and keep it very simple. The only masala that I use here is kitchen king masala. This masala is readily available in all Indian grocery stores. You can use garam masala instead. And I don’t add tomatoes to the palak paneer because I don’t want the gravy to be tangy and want to retain the spinach’s bright green color.
Here is my simple process.
Process of Blanching:
According to the wiki, “Blanching is a cooking process in which food, usually a vegetable or fruit, is scalded in boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water to halt the cooking process. ” For palak paneer, blanching the spinach helps to retain the color of the spinach. Here is how I blanch the spinach. I bring the water to a boil and then add the spinach and make sure it is well immersed in water. Then I turn off the heat and cover the vessel with the lid and let it sit for 4-5 minutes. I drain the water and run it through cold water to retain the color of the spinach. Here is the blanched spinach.
Now without any further ado, let’s see how to make palak paneer with detailed step-wise pictures.
Ingredients:
Organic Baby Spinach – 1 lb Kitchen king Masala – 2 tsps Salt – 2.tsps Water for blanching and ½ cup Oil – 1 tsp + 1 tsp Chopped cilantro – a handful Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp Chopped onion – ½ cup Green chilly – 2 (slit) Paneer – 10 oz pack
Prep-Work
Blanch the spinach as mentioned above and let it cool. .I used the entire 1 lb organic spinach that I got from Costco. Chop the onions and green chili finely and chop the paneer into cubes.
Prepare the palak paneer.
Heat the kadai and add the 1 tsp of oil. Now add the onions, cilantro, and green chili and saute until the onions are translucent. Let this onion mix cool.
Blend the spinach and the sauteed onion, cilantro, and green chili into a smooth puree by adding ½ cup of water. Heat the kadai and add the remaining one tsp of oil. Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium-low, add cumin seeds and the kitchen king masala and fry for 30 seconds. Make sure the masala doesn’t get burnt.
Add the spinach puree and salt and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
Finally, add the paneer cubes and mix well.
Let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes and turn the heat off. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro.
That’s it. Yummy palak paneer is ready. Serve hot with rotis.
Notes:
Adjust the spice and salt level according to your preference. You can shallow fry the paneer cubes before adding them to the palak gravy. You can make paneer at home but you can use store-bought also. If your paneer is hard, you can soak them in hot water for 5 minutes or microwave them for 2 minutes. Instead of grinding the onion, cilantro, and green chili along with spinach, you can skip that and saute them along with kitchen king masala.
P.S.: If you try this palak paneer, please don’t forget to comment and rate this recipe. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will get to it A.S.A.P. Make sure to follow me on my Pinterest for more healthy and delicious ideas! Follow me on Instagram or join my Facebook Group for more gardening and recipe updates! You can also sign-up for my newsletter for weekly updates.
Some more paneer recipe for you
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