Palak Paneer is one of the most popular North Indian curry and is also one of the simplest curry to prepare. This delicious creamy curry goes well with roti/naan or pulao. Surprisingly for my kd who hates greens, he loves this curry so yes, I do make them often for him
Blanching Spinach leaves and then adding it to cold water preserves the beautiful green color of the spinach, reduce pesticides that would have been used for the leaves , also since spinach is the main ingredient of the curry, it’s best to blanch and puree it before adding it to curry
**Note: This is restaurant style curry, hence I have used both butter and oil. You can reduce the quantity or skip one of them. I have roasted Paneer before adding it to curry, you can directly add them too without roasting
Preparation time: 10 mins Cooking time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins
Servings: 3
Ingredients
- 200g Paneer (Cottage Cheese), Cubed
- 1 bunch Spinach, cleaned
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 2 Cardamom
- 3-4 Cloves
- 1 inch Cinnamon stick
- 3 tsp Oil
- 1 tbsp Butter
- Salt to taste
- 2 tbsp Cream
- 3 green chilies
- 1 inch Ginger
- 1 garlic Cloves
- 2 tsp Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek leaves), crushed
- 1/2 tsp garam Masala
- 1/2 Onion , finely chopped
- 1/2 Tomato, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup Water
Steps to prepare
- Boil 5 cup water. Add Spinach to it and boil for 2 minutes
- Drain excess water from Spinach immediately.
- Now transfer spinach to cold water
- Once spinach has cooled, drain excess water completely and transfer it to grinder/blender
- Add inch ginger, 1 clove garlic and 3 green chilies to grinder
- Grind spinach to smooth paste without adding water
- In a large kadai heat oil and butter.
- Roast paneer until golden brown on edges and keep it aside. If you do not wish to roast paneer, you can skip this step
- In same pan, add cumin seeds, bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and 1 tsp kasuri methi. Roast until aromatic
- Add onions with little salt. Saute until onions are translucent
- Add tomato and saute till the tomatoes turn soft and mushy
- Add spinach paste, water and salt. Mix well
- Add roasted paneer and mix well.
- Simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add garam masala, 1 tsp kasuri methi and 2 tbsp cream. mix well.
- Serve hot with roti or naan
