Palak Paneer/Saag paneer/ Spinach gravy with Cottage cheese recipe
Indian cottage cheese (Paneer) dipped in sumptuous creamy spinach gravy cooked in aromatic spices.
Equipment
- pan/ kadhai
Ingredients
- 500 grams palak leaves/ spinach leaves washed and roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- 250 gms paneer/ cottage cheese cut into cubes
- 1 tsp oil any vegetable oil/ olive oil
- 2 tbsp ghee/ clarified butter you can use oil
- 2 medium onions chopped finely
- 1 medium tomato pureed
- 1 inch ginger slice grated/ paste
- 7-8 cloves garlic grated/ paste of 4 cloves and keep 2 cloves whole
- 4-5 green chillies chopped
- 1 tsp jeera/ cumin seeds whole
- a pinch of hing powder/asafoetida powder
- salt as per taste
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder/ haldi powder
- 3 tbsp malai/ clotted cream if homemade cream is not available you can use fresh cream/ clotted cream
Instructions
- Blanch the spinach leaves/palak leaves along with 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1-2 green chillies,and half a cup of water, in a covered pan for 6-8 min.
- Once cool, blend the above to make a smooth puree.
- In a pan, heat ghee.
- Add Jeera/ cumin seeds, hing (asafoetida) and let it splutter for a minute.
- Add Ginger and garlic (grated or paste). If you do not have fresh ginger/ garlic, you can use 2 tsp of ready ginger/garlic ready paste.Saute till the raw aroma of ginger garlic goes away.
- Add chopped onions. Saute them till they turn nice light brown in colour.
- Add tomato puree.
- Saute the whole tempering well, till you can see oil on the sides.
- Add salt, red chilli powder, haldi powder(turmeric powder) and chopped green chillies.
- Add the palak/ spinach puree, and saute well for 5-10 minutes on slow heat.
- Add 2 tbsp Malai/ fresh cream to the puree. Mix well .
- In a separate pan , heat oil. Add paneer cubes and lightly saute them for 5-7 minutes in the oil till they are nice and golden.(This step is completely optional. you can use the paneer as is without slightly frying it)
- Now add the paneer (fried/ or fresh cubes) to the spinach puree.Mix well, and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Garnish with fresh cream and serve hot with paranthas/ roti/ naan.
Video
Notes
1. If you have added water while blanching, you can sieve it before making the puree, depending on the consistency you want.
2.If using malai, just whip it for 2-3 minutes to make it smooth.
3. Adding cream/ malai really brings out the richness in this dish, and cuts the bitterness of spinach, so I would really recommend adding it.
4.I recommend using pure desi ghee for this dish.True flavour of authentic punjabi palak paneer, and as a matter of fact , most of the Punjabi dishes comes out with using pure desi ghee.