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    Whisk Affair » Recipes » Dal & Curries » Veg Curries » Palak Paneer

    Published: Jul 18, 2020 | Last Updated On: Sep 20, 2020 by Neha Mathur | This post may contain affiliate links. I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Palak Paneer

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    Made using Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) and Spinach puree, this restaurant-style Palak Paneer Curry is a delight to eat with any Indian bread. Make it at home using my simple recipe.

    Here are some more Palak Recipes, that you can try – Palak Raita, Palak Pakoda, Dal Palak, Palak Corn Curry, Palak Chole, and Punjabi Saag Paneer. 

    Palak Paneer served in a bowl.
    Jump to:
    • About This Recipe
    • Ingredients 
    • Step by Step Recipe
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Storage Suggestions
    • Serving Suggestions
    • Recipe Card

    About This Recipe

    Palak is spinach and Paneer is Indian cottage cheese, and the combination of both in a delicious gravy is called Palak Paneer. It is a Punjabi bright green curry with blanched and pureed spinach as its base and paneer cubes simmered in it along with a few spices.

    If you want to make it richer, you can add some fresh cream to it. The recipe I have shared have 350 Kcal per portion. You can make it healthier by replacing cream with yogurt or cashew cream.

    This Palak Paneer Curry is

    • Healthy
    • Flavorful
    • Gluten Free
    • Can be made vegan

    Ingredients 

    Palak Paneer Ingredients

    Spinach – You will need palak or spinach leaves to make this dish. Try to use fresh and small leaves. The quality of palak makes a lot of difference in the taste of this dish. While our stay in the US, I used to make this curry using the frozen spinach from Costco and it worked just fine.

    Paneer – You can get paneer or Indian cottage cheese in any Indian store. In fact, a lot of regular grocery stores in the US also carry paneer these days. To make this curry vegan, replace paneer with tofu.

    Lemon Juice – Adding lemon juice at the end makes sure the iron from spinach is absorbed by the body. So make sure to add it.

    Spices – You will also need basic spices like cumin seeds, dry red chillies, coriander powder and garam masala powder.

    Others – Onion, tomato, ginger, and garlic are also required to make this recipe.

    Adding a little cream at the end makes this dish very tempting. If you want to make vegan version, replace fresh cream with greek yogurt, almond cream or cashew cream. This version will be healthier too.

    You can also replace paneer with chickpeas or corn.

    Step by Step Recipe

    Blanch – Heat water in a large pot. Clean the spinach and wash it thoroughly under running water. Once the water comes to a boil, add the cooking soda and spinach and blanch the spinach for 3-4 minutes. You can also add a teaspoon of sugar in the water to get a bright green color of spinach.

    Spinach and baking soda added in boiling water.

    Drain the water and run the spinach under cold water immediately.

    Spinach added in ice cold water.

    Puree – Put the spinach a blender along with green chillies and make a smooth paste.

    Spinach added in a grinder along with green chillies.

    Make sure the paste is smooth before you proceed to use it.

    Smooth paste made.

    Make the Curry– Heat oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and dried red chillies. Let them crackle for a few seconds.

    Cumin seeds and dry red chillies added in hot oil.

    Add onion and garlic and fry until onion turns translucent.

    Onion and garlic added in the pan.

    Add tomato and cook for 3-4 minutes. You can blend the masala at this stage for a creamier gravy.

    Tomato added in the pan.

    Add coriander powder, garam masala powder and fry for another minute.

    Coriander powder and garam masala powder added in the pan.

    Add spinach puree and saute on high heat for a minute.

    Spinach Puree added in the pan.

    Now add paneer, salt, and ½ cup water and bring the curry to a boil.

    Paneer, salt and water added in the pan.

    Switch off the heat and add lemon juice and fresh cream and mix well.

    Lemon juice and fresh cream added in the pan.

    Smoking The Curry – To get a restaurant like smoky flavor, you can give a Dhungar to the curry. For the Dhungar, heat a coal piece until it is red hot. Keep a bowl inside the bowl with curry and keep the piece of coal on top of it. Pour a teaspoon of ghee on top of the coal and immediately close the lid of the main bowl. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

    Open the lid, remove the coal piece and the small bowl, and give the curry a gentle mix. Garnish the Palak Paneer with Fresh Cream. Serve hot with Naan or Phulke.

    Dhungar in palak paneer.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How to clean Spinach?

    Cleaning the greens, especially if you live in India is a challenge. The greens come directly from the farms, which is a very good thing but they are full of mud and dirt. So we have to make sure they are cleaned very nicely before cooking.

    To clean the greens well, fill a large pot with water. Soak the greens in water for 5 minutes. The dirt will settle down. Now very gently remove the greens from the top and discard the water. Repeat this process 2-3 times.

    What is the difference with Saag Paneer?

    In Palak Paneer, only spinach is used in the gravy while in Saag Paneer, other greens like mustard greens, fenugreek leaves, etc are also used along with spinach. 

    There is a similar Kashmiri dish called Methi Chaman. It has spinach and methi as the base gravy ingredients. Fried paneer cubes are added to it later.

    How to make it without onion and garlic?

    I make Palak Paneer quite often at home and when making it for regular everyday meals, I prefer this version which requires very less oil as compared to the restaurant-style one and is quite healthy to eat on a regular basis.

    To make it, blanch the spinach and puree the spinach as mentioned in the process below.  Now heat 1 tablespoon ghee or oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add hing and cumin seeds.

    Once they start to crackle, add tomato puree, and cook for a few minutes. Now add coriander powder and red chilli powder and spinach puree. Cook for another minute and then add paneer cubes. Cook for a minute and a very simple home-style palak paneer is ready in no time.

    Storage Suggestions

    You can refrigerate it for 2-3 days in airtight containers.

    If you want to freeze this dish, don’t add cream and paneer cubes at the end. Just freeze the gravy in freezer-safe containers.

    When you are ready to serve, thaw the gravy for 3-4 hours. Then re-heat until nicely warmed. Now add fresh cream and paneer cubes and cook for another minute. You can also make the curry and refrigerate it for 2-3 days. Add the paneer cubes once you are ready to serve.

    Serving Suggestions

    I make Palak Paneer very often, either to go with Rice, Jeera Rice, Chapati, Naan, Garlic Naan, Tawa Paratha, Laccha Paratha, Missi Roti, and Poori .

    You can even serve it with Makki Ki Roti, Jowar Roti, or Bajre Ki Roti.

    Serve it with any Indian bread or even include them in your festive meals along with your choice of Dal, Pulao, and Roti.

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    Recipe Card

    Loved this recipe?Click here to leave a review and give us a five star rating ★★★★★
    Palak Paneer is a quintessentially Indian dish, a favorite across the length and breadth of India. Made using Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) and Spinach puree, this restaurant-style dish is a delight to eat with any Indian bread. Here is how to make it.

    Palak Paneer Recipe

    Palak Paneer is a quintessentially Indian dish, a favorite across the length and breadth of India. Made using Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) and Spinach puree, this restaurant-style dish is a delight to eat with any Indian bread. Here is how to make it.
    4.64 from 25 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: Indian
    Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 40 minutes minutes
    Servings: 4 people
    Calories: 350kcal
    Author: Neha Mathur

    Ingredients 

    • 200 g Spinach
    • ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
    • 2-3 Green chilli
    • 4 tablespoon Vegetable oil
    • 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
    • 3-4 Dry red chillies
    • 1 cup Onion (Finely chopped)
    • 5-6 cloves Garlic (Crushed)
    • 1 cup Tomato (Finely chopped)
    • 2 teaspoon Coriander powder
    • ½ teaspoon Garam masala powder
    • Salt to taste
    • 2 teaspoon Lemon juice
    • 2 tablespoon Fresh cream
    • 200 g Paneer
    US Customary or Metric
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    Instructions

    • Heat water in a large pot.
    • Clean the spinach and wash it thoroughly under running water.
    • Once the water comes to a boil, add the cooking soda and spinach and blanch the spinach for 3-4 minutes.
    • Drain the water and run the spinach under cold water immediately.
    • Put the spinach a blender along with green chillies and make a smooth paste.
    • Heat oil in a pan.
    • Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and dried red chillies.
    • Let them crackle for a few seconds.
    • Add onion and garlic and fry until onion turns translucent.
    • Add tomato and cook for 3-4 minutes. You can blend the masala in a blender at this stage for a creamier gravy.
    • Now add coriander powder, garam masala powder and fry for another minute.
    • Add spinach puree and saute on high heat for minute.
    • Add paneer, salt and ½ cup water and bring the curry to a boil.
    • Switch off the heat and add lemon juice and mix well.
    • For the Dhungar, heat a coal piece until it is red hot. Keep a bowl inside the bowl with curry and keep the piece of coal on top of it. Pour a teaspoon of ghee on top of the coal and immediately close the lid of the main bowl.
    • Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
    • Open the lid, remove the coal piece and the small bowl and give the curry a gentle mix.
    • Garnish the Palak Paneer with Fresh Cream.
    • Serve hot with Naan or Phulke.

    Notes

    Tempering – You can give a tempering of cumin and garlic in ghee once the dish is served in the serving bowl. That’s how the famous Kesar da Dhaba in Amritsar serve their dish.
    Frying – You can deep fry or shallow fry the paneer cubes in little oil until browned and then add them in the gravy for a change.
    Hard Paneer – If the paneer is hard, soak it in warm water for 15 minutes. It will become soft again.
    Vegan – If you want to make a vegan version, replace paneer with tofu and cream with cashew cream or almond cream.
    Make it richer – Add fresh cream at the end to make creamier and richer version.
    With Aloo – Some people add aloo in the gravy and make Aloo Palak Paneer. You can even add corn, makhana or chickpeas to it.
     

    Nutrition

    Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 217mg | Potassium: 572mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 5450IU | Vitamin C: 77.1mg | Calcium: 327mg | Iron: 2.4mg
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Dolly

      June 14, 2018 at 8:10 pm

      5 stars
      Hi ,

      This is sooo good . My husband loved it .Actually we are vegan . So just changed paneer to tofu and cream to vegan curd . Thank you so much for sharing it..!

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        June 23, 2018 at 8:34 am

        Thnx a lot for trying 🙂

        Reply
    2. Emily Hemming

      November 22, 2018 at 7:05 pm

      5 stars
      This dish was AMAZING!! SO easy, full of flavour and absolutely delicious. We had it with rice and homemade naan bread!
      Thanks for the clear instructions and quality recipe 🙂

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        November 25, 2018 at 5:16 am

        Thnx a lot for trying and leaving your feedback 🙂

        Reply
        • RAJESH N RATHOD

          June 10, 2020 at 11:39 am

          YUMMY – FLAVOURFUL -RUSTIC

          Reply
          • Neha Mathur

            June 10, 2020 at 12:03 pm

            Thanks 🙂

            Reply
    3. Gautami

      December 20, 2018 at 11:24 am

      5 stars
      This was delicious. I tried the recipe at home and loved it. I used homemade fresh cream and homemade paneer for this recipe and it was amazing. Thank you.

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        December 21, 2018 at 3:01 am

        Thnx a lot for trying 🙂

        Reply
    4. Prathmesh

      December 27, 2018 at 2:31 am

      5 stars
      Very nice recipe thanks for sharing. I didn’t knew that you can add baking soda or sugar to maintain the green color of the spiach, thanks for the tip. I was just transferring the spinach immidiately from boiled water to ice cold water to maintain it’s color and it was also working quite well for me. Again thanks for such a wonderful recipe.????

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        December 27, 2018 at 3:20 am

        That also works well but adding a bit of baking soda adds to it 🙂

        Reply
    5. Hazanath Ashraf

      February 19, 2020 at 6:38 pm

      Such a great recipe, lipsmacking good. Thanks for sharing

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        February 20, 2020 at 1:42 am

        I am glad you liked it 🙂

        Reply
    6. Naman

      April 23, 2020 at 4:10 pm

      Thank you so much for the recipe. With all the details that you provided, it had to be perfect. It was the first time I had cooked palak paneer, and it was finger licking good. Kudos to you…

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        April 25, 2020 at 3:43 am

        Happy to hear 🙂

        Reply
    7. Pushpa

      June 13, 2020 at 9:20 am

      amezig recipe mem

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        June 14, 2020 at 3:22 am

        Thanks 🙂

        Reply
    8. Riviera16

      July 31, 2020 at 8:53 pm

      5 stars
      I made this the other day and it came out great! I substituted tofu for paneer and added a mix of cream cheese, yogurt, & sour cream to get back some of the creaminess the tofu itself wouldn’t provide. It’s my second time making this dish; between my previous recipe and this recipe I definitely prefer this one! 😁

      Reply
      • Neha Mathur

        August 02, 2020 at 1:12 pm

        Good to hear 🙂

        Reply
    9. Kumar om

      April 19, 2022 at 10:07 am

      5 stars
      Lovely recipe Neha! I have tried many many of your recipes and they all turn out lovely! My kids used to love only restaurant North Indian dishes. Being a South Indian, I could never capture that. But with your recipes, my kids are enjoying home food 😊 Thank you!!

      Reply

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