Palak Paneer Recipe

By WhenWeEat

Total Time: 30 minutes

Category: Main Course/Entree, Sides

Made for: 2 adults

Palak Paneer is a North Indian dish made of Paneer and Spinach leaves. However, adding fenugreek leaves with spinach makes the dish even tastier. It is also referred to as Saag Paneer and is eaten mainly with Indian Roti or Naan. However, many serve it on the side of boiled rice. This an absolute favourite dish of mine and this is a dish you should prepare at home. I am never a fan of the oily Palak Paneer served in restaurants. To me, this dish doesn’t taste right until it is served with one special ingredient- the love and warmth of family. So, here goes, the recipe of Palak Paneer.

I also love munching on fried paneer cubes. Below is a picture of the same. Please note that you should fry the paneer just before preparing the dish. It keeps them crispy and warm and that helps to enhance the overall flavour of the dish.

Ingredients:

Particulars		Quantity
Spinach/Palak Leaves	:	500 grams
Paneer	:	200 grams
Onions (Big)	:	1
Fenugreek/Methi Leaves (Optional)	:	2 Bundles/Aati
Tomatoes (Big)	:	2
Ginger/Aada (Big)	:	1 inch
Garlic/Roshun	:	5 cloves
Dried Red Chilli	:	4 pieces
Salt	:	1 tablespoon
Ghee/Clarified Butter	:	100 grams

How to make Palak Paneer:

Preparation Procedure:

Step 1: Finely dice 1 onion (big) and 2 tomatoes (big) into small pieces.

Step 2 : Now prepare the spice paste by grinding 1 inch ginger, 5 garlic cloves and 4 pieces of dried red chilli. You can either use a mortar and pestle or a mixer grinder.

Step 3: Clean and wash 500 grams of spinach and 2 bundles of fenugreek leaves properly and dry the excess water.

Step 4: Cut 200 grams of paneer into small equal cubes.

Cooking Procedure:

Step 1: Boil the spinach and fenugreek leaves and mash them up finely with the help of mixer grinder or mortar and pestle to make a paste.

Step 2: Grease the kadai/cooking pan with 50 grams clarified butter (ghee).

Step 3: Then fry the pieces of paneer and keep them aside.

Step 4: Now fry the onions in the ghee left in the kadai/cooking pan till they are brown.

Step 5: Put in salt, tomatoes and the mixed spices you prepared in Step 2 during Prep and cook the same in high heat while stirring continuously. This is where the real skill of cooking comes. This method is also called kosano/koshano in Bengali.

Step 6: After 2 minutes, put in the paste of fenugreek and spinach leaves.

Step 7:Now add the fried pieces of paneer in the above and cook them for 3 minutes in high heat while stirring continuously. It is ready once the water is absorbed and the dish gets a thick consistency.

How to serve Palak Paneer:

You may add a spoonful of butter (also called makkhan) on top of the dish. Serve hot, preferably on the side of Rumali Roti or Butter Naan and enjoy :)

Few tips for making the dish:

1. You can use home-made Indian cheese (also called ছানা in Bengali) instead of Paneer. If you use Indian cheese/ছানা (pronounced as Chhana), then you need to wrap it in a clean cloth and keep it under a Shil (of Shil-Nora- a kind of Indian Mortar and Pestle) for 1 hour. You can use anything heavy weight instead of the Shil-Nora. This helps the Indian cheese to set. After an hour take the cheese out of the cloth and dice it into small pieces.

2. As mentioned in the introduction, you should fry the paneer just before preparing the dish. It keeps them crispy and warm and that helps to enhance the overall flavour of the dish.

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