Palak Paneerપાલક પનીર
Soft paneer in a bright green spinach gravy. It looks impressive, takes forty minutes, and is the easiest way to get children to eat spinach.
Ingredients
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- 500 g spinach
- 250 g paneer, cubed
- 1 onion, 2 tomatoes
- 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 2 green chillies
- 2 tbsp butter or oil, cumin seeds
- ½ tsp garam masala, ¼ cup cream
- Salt and lemon
Method
- Blanch the spinach for 2 minutes, then drop it straight into cold water. This keeps the colour green.
- Blend the spinach with the green chillies into a smooth purée.
- Fry cumin, ginger-garlic and onion in butter, then add the tomatoes and cook until soft.
- Add the spinach purée and cook for only 5-6 minutes; longer and it turns dull.
- Stir in the paneer, garam masala, salt and cream, and rest for 3 minutes.
- Finish with lemon and serve with roti or naan.
Tips
- Don't skip the cold water; it's what keeps the dish green.
- Soaking the paneer in warm water for 10 minutes keeps it soft.
Storing and reheating
Covered in the fridge it keeps two days, though it never looks as green as on day one; chilling and reheating dulls the spinach. Reheat gently with a quarter cup of water and do not let it boil. The spinach purée alone freezes for a month. Do not freeze the finished dish with paneer in it, because the paneer goes crumbly once thawed.
What you can swap
- No cream? Use two tablespoons of fresh malai, two tablespoons of thick whisked curd (add it off the boil), or a paste of five or six cashews. If using cashews, cook them along with the tomatoes.
- If spinach is unavailable, methi or amaranth leaves work the same way, but methi is bitter and needs half a teaspoon of sugar to balance it.
- If you avoid garlic, use ginger with a pinch of asafoetida and crush kasuri methi in at the end. That fills some of the gap.
- Oil can replace the butter, but half butter and half oil is best: butter alone browns too fast.
What to serve with it
With roti, naan or lachha paratha, and sliced raw onion, lemon and a little pickle on the side. It gets made for guests, and through winter when the spinach in the market is good. Jeera rice is the other common pairing.
Mistakes to avoid
- Do not blanch the spinach for more than two minutes. Over-blanched spinach loses colour and flavour both, and the purée turns watery.
- Squeeze the blanched spinach properly dry. A wet purée thins the gravy, and then you have to cook it down, which is exactly what kills the colour.
- Do not blend the spinach completely smooth. Leave a little texture. Spinach run long in a mixer looks dull and feels slimy.
- Salt after the purée is in the pan. Salting the spinach earlier makes it weep and thins the gravy.
Questions people ask
Why does my palak paneer turn dark?
Two reasons: the spinach was cooked too long, or it never went into cold water after blanching. Do not cook for more than five or six minutes after the purée goes in, and avoid an iron kadhai, because spinach discolours against iron.
The gravy tastes bitter. What went wrong?
Either the thick spinach stems were left in, or the garlic was fried too far. Use the leaves and discard the thick stems. Fry the ginger-garlic only until it turns pale gold, not brown.
Can I use frozen spinach?
You can, but it has already been blanched, so do not cook it again. Thaw it, squeeze out the water and blend. The flavour will not be as fresh as with raw spinach and the colour stays a shade duller.
