Palak paneer | Creamy soft Palak paneer recipe
Palak paneer is a Punjabi side dish item prepared for roti, naan, parathas, and stuffed bread. This yummy creamy palak paneer is prepared by cooking blanched spinach leaves and paneer (cottage cheese) with spices. This recipe is comparatively an easy one among other north Indian gravy items, which you can prepare in 15 to 20 minutes.
Few health notes about spinach / Palak:
Palak which is spinach in English and pasalai in Tamil, is a superfood loaded with tons of nutrients in a low-calorie package.
This green leafy vegetable is very useful in major health benefits like lowering risk of cancer, improving blood glucose control level in people with diabetes and improving bone health as well as supplying Minerals and vitamins, particularly iron, vitamin K and folates.
I have recently read one article from style craze about the benefits of spinach for skin and health, mentioned that just half cup of cooked spinach gives as much nutrition as one cup of raw spinach.
Now let’s talk about consuming this Palak raw or cooked. You might have heard or seen some people cooking this palak gravy by grinding the raw leaves without blanching.
But I personally do not believe in grinding and cooking raw leaves without blanching, because I feel the harmful pesticides and impurities, which are loaded in any green leafy vegetable, may not be removed completely without blanching.
Also, there are few vegetables that are healthy as cooked than consuming raw. Spinach falls under that category but of course overcooking may spoil the complete vitamin benefits of consuming Palak.
If you can get pure organic Palak leaves then you may go ahead with the procedure without blanching (dipping in hot water for 2mins).
For similar paneer and veg gravy recipes:
Now let us see the procedure of making this creamy soft restaurant style palak paneer with a quick video.
Palak paneer | Creamy soft Palak paneer recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch fresh Palak leaves
- 1 cup chopped paneer
- 1 big onion
- 1 large tomato
- 1 or 2 green chillies
- 1 tbsp butter/ghee
- 1/2 tsp cumin/jeera
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste (1 inch Ginger+ 6 garlic)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 3/4 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp Garam Masala (optional)
- 1 tsp salt or as required
To garnish:
- 1 tbsp fresh cream / cashew paste
- 1 tsp Kasturi methi
Instructions
Preparation:
How to blanch Palak leaves:
- Wash fresh Palak leaves thoroughly 2 to 3times in running water.
- Heat 2 cups of water until steam comes and pour this hot water on Palak leaves. Leave it for just 2 minutes. By this time the impurities and harmful pesticides will be removed from the Palak leaves by the hot water. Do not leave in blanching for more than 2 minutes.
- Remove the leaves and grind them along with green chillies into a fine paste using little cold water. This Palak Puri should be very soft in texture. Keep it aside.
- Grind one big onion into a paste and one tomato into a paste separately. Keep them ready.
- Make ginger garlic paste if you don't have it readily available. Alternatively, you can grind 1-inch piece of ginger and 6 garlic parts along with Palak green chilli puree.
Recipe:
- Heat butter or ghee in a kadai, add jeera seeds and let them splutter.
- Add ground onion paste and sauté in the butter nicely until onion turns to light brown color.
- Now add a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste and fry with onions.
- When the mixture turns to the brown color and when the entire raw flavor is gone add ground tomato paste.
- Cook tomato nicely and add turmeric powder.
- After tomato paste cooked well, add palak chilli puree and stir well.
- Add chilli powder coriander powder and a quarter teaspoon of garam Masala if using. I do not use garam masala for this gravy.
- Now add a cup of water to adjust the consistency of the gravy.
- Let the gravy cook for 2 minutes (do not overcook).
- Add fresh cream or cashew nut paste (soak 6 cashews& paste them with a tbsp of water). Refer my tips to know how to make a homemade fresh cream. This step is to give extra creamy restaurant style texture and smoothness to the gravy.
- Add chopped paneer cubes. I use homemade paneer. If you are using store bought paneer, wash the cubes in warm water just for a minute, drain and use in Gravy.
- Crush 1 teaspoon of Kasturi Methi (dried Methi leaves) and mix with the gravy. This step is optional to give the North Indian touch.
- Let everything boil together in medium flame for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not overcook.
- Finally, you can garnish with a tablespoon of butter.
- Serve with hot chapatis roti and paratha.
Notes
Nutrition
Pictorial:
Preparation:
How to blanch Palak leaves:
- Wash fresh Palak leaves thoroughly 2 to 3times in running water.
- Heat 2 cups of water until steam comes and pour this hot water on Palak leaves. Leave it for just 2 minutes. By this time the impurities and harmful pesticides will be removed from the Palak leaves by the hot water. Do not leave in blanching for more than 2 minutes.
- Remove the leaves and grind them along with green chillies into a fine paste using little cold water. This palak puree should be very soft in texture. Keep it aside.
- Grind one big onion into a paste and one tomato into a paste separately. Keep them ready.
- Make ginger garlic paste if you don’t have it readily available. Alternatively, you can grind 1-inch piece of ginger and 6 garlic parts along with Palak green chilli puree.
Recipe:
- Heat butter or ghee in a kadai, add jeera seeds and let them splutter.
- Add ground onion paste and sauté in the butter nicely until onion turns to light brown color.
- Now add a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste and fry with onions.
- When the mixture turns to the brown color and when the entire raw flavor is gone add ground tomato paste.
- Cook tomato nicely and add turmeric powder.
- After tomato paste cooked well, add palak chilli puree and stir well.
- Add chilli powder coriander powder and a quarter teaspoon of garam Masala if using. I do not use garam masala for this gravy.
- Now add a cup of water to adjust the consistency of the gravy.
- Let the gravy cook for 2 minutes (do not overcook).
- Add fresh cream or cashew nut paste (soak 6 cashews& paste them with a tbsp of water). Refer my tips to know how to make a homemade fresh cream. This step is to give extra creamy restaurant style texture and smoothness to the gravy.
- Add chopped paneer cubes. I use homemade paneer. If you are using store bought paneer, wash the cubes in warm water just for a minute, drain and use in Gravy.
- Crush 1 teaspoon of Kasturi Methi (dried Methi leaves) and mix with the gravy. This step is optional to give the North Indian touch.
- Let everything boil together in medium flame for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not overcook.
- Finally, you can garnish with a tablespoon of butter.
- Serve with hot chapatis roti and paratha.
Tips/notes:
- The whole process of cooking this gravy should not exceed 10 minutes.
- You can use oil instead of butter to cook.
- Make sure to grind the palak leaves into a fine paste to get the creamy texture.
- Homemade fresh cream can be prepared easily by collecting the top layer (malai) of boiled milk. Store this top layer(paaladai in Tamil) tightly in a container inside the fridge. Whenever you need fresh cream, just whisk or blend 2 tablespoons of this and your fresh cream is ready to use. This malai can stay good up to a month inside the fridge.
- If you are particular about bright green color, you can add a pinch of sugar while adding the palak puree to avoid discoloration. This step is optional.
- Adding butter at last before serving gives a nice Punjabi aroma.
You may like my other recipes:
Excellent receipe.
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