Updated on by Raks Anand 115 Comments
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Palak paneer is a popular north Indian side dish prepared with Indian spinach and Indian cottage cheese. It is perfect to go with flat breads. Learn how to make this without changing the color to get greenish gravy.
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I was not a big fan of palak paneer (yeah🤪)until I had at The Mango tree restaurant here in Singapore. So I have never tried at home too obviously. This is the first time I am trying this.
Now I am liking slowly. Since my kiddo loves paneer, as well as palak this is a nice way to make him eat spinach…he eatspalak pooriand this comes next in his favorite.
To achieve a perfect green, we must take care to retain the color of Indian spinach, also it should not be under cooked as it could cause stomach upset as well as bitter gravy.
How to make perfect tasting Palak paneer? Here are some FAQs that will help you to get perfect results:
Why is my Palak paneer bitter?
If the spinach is not cooked properly. This is one of the main reasons.
Other reasons:
In this particular recipe, if the spice powder is added more, or burnt while roasting (whole spice) or the garam masala is added more at the end.
Not adding enough tomato to balance also causes it taste so.
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5 from 4 votes
Palak paneer recipe
Palak paneer is a popular Indian side dish for flat breads. Instead of blanching, I like to sautee the palak for bright green colour. Step by step pictures post.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes minutes
Author Raks Anand
Servings 4
Cup measurements
Ingredients
- 2 cups Palak Tighyly packed, Indian spinach
- 1 Onion
- 1.5 cups Paneer cubes Measured after thawing
- 2 Tomato
- 5 Green chillies Medium heat
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric
- 1 teaspoon Coriander seeds powder
- 1 teaspoon Kasoori methi
- ½ teaspoon Sugar
- ¼ cup Milk/ cream
- 2 tablespoon Oil / butter
- Salt
To roast and powder
- ½ inch Cinnamon
- 1 Cardamom
- 1 Cloves
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds/ Jeera
Instructions
Wash spinach, drain excess water. Remove the stem part from the leaf. Tear off any thick stem part in the middle of the leaves too..
Chop the onion and tomatoes finely. Gather other ingredients needed.
In a pan, heat ½ teaspoon of ghee and fry the items in the 'To roast and powder'. Add every thing together except cumin seeds and roast.
Add cumin seeds lastly as it gets fried in no time. Do not burn anything which will turn the gravy bitter. Keep a side. I powdered this using a hand mortar and pestle in to a fine powder.
In the same pan, add the washed palak leaves and fry till it reduces in volume. The water in the leaves is enough to make it shrink. If you need all few drops of oil while frying. Transfer to a plate and cool down.
Grind it with the green chillies, water if needed.
Heat pan and add the oil and fry onions thoroughly till it turns golden brown. Add turmeric and coriander powder and give it a quick stir in low flame.
Add the tomatoes and little salt to make the tomatoes cook fast. Add the kasoori methi now, crush them in between your palms.
When the tomatoes turn mushy, add the ground palak paste, sugar. Fry in low flame for 4-5 minutes till oil separates or till the raw smell disappears and the palak gets cooked well.
Mean while boil water in another vessel and add the paneer and switch off the stove and keep covered till use. Drain the paneer and add it to the palak gravy.
Add milk and mix or cream slowly as you keep mixing in low flame and just bring to boil.
Add the powdered garam masala.Mix well.Transfer to the serving bowl and serve with hot roti or naan.
Notes
- I preferred sautéing the leaves than boil, you can try blanching too. Make sure not over cook the palak,or you wont get green gravy.
- You can add a pinch of cooking soda for the palak to retain its green while boiling.
- Adding sugar helps retain green of the palak.
- If your palak and green chillies are not cooked properly, it will turn the gravy bitter.
- I have avoided using red chilli powder and used green chilli and pepper for spiciness. This ensures giving a good green colour to the gravy.
- Use cream in place of milk for extra richness. Also curd or sour cream works fine.
- For lazy version, you can avoid the spice/ masala grinding part and add garam masala instead.
- After adding paneer cubes, do not cook long time as it will make paneer turn hard. Use fresh paneer for best results.
- Soaking in hot water helps softening the paneer.
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Step by step
1. To make palak paneer, wash spinach firstly, drain excess water. Remove the stem part from the leaf. Tear off any thick stem part in the middle of the leaves too..)
Chop the onion and tomatoes finely. Furthermore gather other ingredients needed.
In a pan, heat ½ teaspoon of ghee and fry the items in the 'To roast ...'. Add every thing together except cumin seeds and roast.
2. Finally add cumin seeds as it gets fried in no time. Do not burn anything which will turn the gravy taste weird. Keep a side. I powdered this using a hand mortar and pestle, since crisp gets fine texture easily.
In the same pan, to prepare palak paneer, add the washed palak leaves and saute till it reduces in volume. The water in the leaves is enough to make it shrink. If you need all few drops of oil while sauteeing. Transfer to a plate and cool down.
3. Then grind it with the green chillies, water if needed.
4. Heat pan with oil and fry onions thoroughly till it turns golden brown. Add turmeric and ground coriander and give it a quick stir in low flame.
5. In goes the tomatoes and little salt to make it cook fast. Add the kasoori methi now, crush them in between your palms.
6. When the masala turn mushy, add the ground palak paste, sugar. Fry in low flame for 4-5 minutes till oil separates or till the raw smell disappears and the palak gets cooked well.
7. Meanwhile boil water in another vessel and add the paneer and switch off the stove and keep covered till use. Drain the paneer and add it to the palak gravy.
8. Add milk and mix or cream slowly as you keep mixing in low flame and just bring to boil.
Add the ground spice mix.Mix well. Transfer to the serving bowl.
Palak paneer goes well with roti or any other flat breads like naan, paratha etc. Also goes well with mild pulao.
