Palak paneer is a popular Indian vegetarian curry made with soft and tender paneer in spinach sauce. This recipe is one of the most recognized vegetarian recipes in Indian restaurants across the world, known as Saag Paneer. I love to serve this curry with Garlic Naan, Jeera Rice, Pulao, and Rotis.
I have always only liked my mom's version of this recipe. It is easy to make, a simple recipe, and all the nutrition of spinach is intact. Traditionally the spinach is blanched and added to the paneer, which helps retain the beautiful color of the spinach. But in this process, we lose the nutrients of spinach! I have found a way to incorporate wholesome nutrients, maintain the vibrant luscious green color, and make it delicious.
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Mom's Palak Paneer
One of the recipes that I loved more at home, and never enjoyed at a restaurant was this palak paneer recipe. My mom's recipe is simple, yet very different from what I make, but it tastes the same. She blanches the spinach leaves and makes a puree first. Then cook the onions and aromatics along with whole spices until browned. Then add some homemade tomato puree, and let it cook until the oil separates. She finally adds the prepared spinach puree, along with spices. Once the curry comes to a soft boil, she adds the fresh succulent paneer. Finish off the curry with some garam masala and kasuri methi!
Make it Vegan
I like to cook my palak paneer in ghee, but to make it vegan you can substitute it with oil or vegan butter. Substitute paneer with firm tofu, and heavy cream with coconut milk, or coconut cream!
Difference between Saag Paneer and Palak Paneer
In my opinion, saag paneer and palak paneer are two different recipes. While saag is made with a combination of collard greens, spinach, methi, and coriander leaves and stems, palak paneer is made of only spinach.
To cook the saag, the greens are pressure cooked and blended into a coarse puree using a hand blender, further seasoned with makki atta, and cooked in minimal spices. While Palak paneer recipe follows a completely different recipe.
Ingredients
Few Indian pantry staple ingredients, succulent paneer and luscious spinach is all you need to make this easy and delicious recipe.
- Ghee - I like to use ghee in this recipe. It gives a beautiful nutty flavor to the curry. You can substitute with avocado oil too.
- Onions - Yellow onions work great for the recipe, but you can use red onions too.
- Aromatics - You must use ginger garlic and green chilies for this recipe.
- Spinach - Preferably use fresh tender spinach leaves, and discard any hard stems. You can also use frozen spinach to make this recipe.
- Tomatoes - I use finely chopped tomatoes for this recipe, but you can puree them and use them too.
- Whole and Ground Spices - I like to use a little bit of Turmeric, Cumin, coriander Powder, and Garam masala for the ground spices. I also use whole cinnamon sticks, green cardamom pods, bay leaf, and kasuri methi.
- Paneer - You will need 250 grams of paneer cubes to make this recipe.
- Heavy Cream - Palak paneer is incomplete without cream. Add cream in the end, to make it rich and luscious curry!
Step- By- Step Recipe
Make the Onion and Spinach Puree
Step 1 - In a heavy bottom pot, add ghee, ginger, green chilies and garlic. Let them cook and then add sliced onions. Cook the onions until they are golden brown.
Step 2 - Add roughly chopped Spinach to the onions. Now mix it well. Cover and let it cook for a minute. You want the spinach to wilt.
Step 3 - Once the spinach is cooked, let this prepared curry base cool down. In a high powered blender, add the cooked onion, spinach and aromatic mix along with half a cup of water. Blend until you get a smooth green luscious puree. Keep the Puree aside.
Make the Palak Paneer
Step 4 - Now in the same pot, add a little more ghee, or oil. Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick and green cardamom pods.
Step 5 - Next, add in the tomatoes and spices like, turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, and salt, along with some garam masala. Cook the tomatoes, until the ghee separates, and the tomatoes are mushy.
Step 6 - Add the prepared onion and spinach puree to the cooked tomatoes. Mix it well.
Step 7- Add some fresh cubes of paneer. If you are using store bought paneer, you can soak them in hot water for 5 minutes. You can also roast the paneer in a separate pan with some oil, and add it to the curry.
Final Tempering to Make Lasooni Palak Paneer
Step 8 - Finish the curry with crushed kasuri methi for a beautiful smoky flavor, and add some heavy cream.
Step 9 - This is an extra step, but to make it delicious Lasooni Palak Paneer make a delicious tempering. Start with adding some oil/ghee in a small sauce pan. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add the thinly sliced garlic, and let lt cook until golden brown. Now turn off the flame, and add dried red chilies, and a little bit of Kashmiri red chili powder. Drizzle it on top of the prepared palak paneer. It gives the recipe an extra mile of oomph.
Serving Suggestions and Storage
Serve the palak paneer with rotis, parathas, naans, or garlic naan. You can also make my dal fry and jeera rice. You can make the curry and store it for 2 days in the refrigerator. If you are making it ahead, add the paneer right before serving.
Expert Tips to Make This Recipe
- Two of the most important elements to make palak paneer is its delicious taste, and beautiful vibrant green color.
- I prefer to use yellow onions to make the curry because the flavor of the yellow onions is sweet, and caramelizes beautifully, and will not render a darker color to the curry, like red onions.
- Use tender spinach leaves to make this recipe. I usually use the boxed baby spinach. Wash the spinach leaves, and dry them using a salad spinner. Roughly chop them and add them as mentioned in the recipe.
- If you are using store-bought paneer, I like to soak my paneer cubes in hot water for 5 minutes, and then drain the water out. If you soak them any longer, you might end up with a very chewy paneer. You can also fry the paneer in some oil and add it to the curry.
- You can smoke a charcoal piece on the stove. Once it is ready, you can place a small bowl in the prepared palak paneer, and add the smoked charcoal piece. Add ghee to the charcoal, and cover the pan. This gives a beautiful smoky flavor to the curry.
- You can use the same recipe, and substitute paneer with potatoes or corn, to make Aloo Palak or Lasooni Corn Palak.
FAQ's to Make Palak Paneer
The raw spinach contains high levels of oxalic acid that gives it a bitter taste. To avoid the bitter taste, you need to cook your spinach until it wilts. Cooking the spinach thoroughly, will make sure your palak paneer is not bitter.
It is okay to freeze the palak paneer gravy without adding the paneer. I meal prep the palak paneer gravy and store it in my freezer. I then dethaw it and paneer to it.
I don't recommend freezing palak paneer, with paneer cubes as it paneer won't hold its shape when we dethaw it.
Cook some cashews with onions and spinach, to avoid adding cream. To make it vegan, use coconut milk or coconut cream.
I will make the curry as it just skip green chilies, and substitute garam masala with curry powder.
More Recipes
Palak Paneer
These nutrional values are automatically generated. Use them for estimation only.
Equipment
- 1 Heavy Bottom Pot
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- 250 Grams Paneer
- 4 Tablespoons Ghee
- 6-7 Cloves Garlic Thinly Sliced/ Minced
- ½ inch Ginger Roughly Chopped
- 1-2 Thai Green Chilies Use as per your spice tolerance
- 1 Large Yellow Onion Thinly Sliced (It should yield about a little more than 1 Cup of Sliced Onions)
- 3 Cups Spinach 250 grams
- ½ Cup Water
- 1 Tomato Finely chopped or pureed
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 Cinnamom Stick
- 2 Green Cardamom Pods
- ⅛ Teaspoon Turmeric
- ½ Teaspoon Cumin Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Coriander Powder
- 1 Teaspooon Garam Masala You can also use Kitchen King Masala
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Kasuri Methi
- 2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
Make the Garlicky Tempering to Make Lasooni Palak Paneer
- 2-3 Teaspoons Ghee/Oil
- ½ Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 3-4 Cloves Garlic Thinly Sliced
- ¼ Teaspoon Red Chili Powder
- 1-2 Dried Red Chilies
Instructions
Prepare The Paneer
- Cut the paneer into cubes. Now if you are using store bought paneer, soak it in hot water for 5 minutes and then drain the water off.
- If you want to fry the paneer, then fry the paneer in some oil, until golden brown from all the sides. Then add the fried paneer to hot water for 5 minutes to make it soft. Drain the water and set it aside.
- In a heavy bottom pot, on medium flame, add 2 tablespoons ghee.
- Once the ghee is hot, add thinly sliced garlic, roughly chopped ginger, and 1 or 2 green chilies. I add 2 Thai green chilies, but if you don't tolerate spice, just add 1 green chili.
- Cook the aromatics until golden, and add the thinly sliced onions. Add a pinch of salt and sauté, cook the onions until golden brown.
- Measure 3 tightly packed cups of spinach before chopping. I use baby spinach. If your spinach has hard stems, discard them, and use the tender leaves only. The hard stems can make your curry taste bitter.
- Cover and let the spinach cook for 1 minute.
- Once the spinach is cooked, cool the onions and spinach mix down.
- Once it is cool, add it to the blender jar. Now add half a cup of water and blend it into smooth puree. Keep it aside.
- Now in the same heavy bottom pot, add ghee. Once hot, add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and green cardamom pods. You can also add 2 cloves if you wish to.
- Now add finely chopped or pureed tomatoes, and add turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala and salt. Mix it well, and cover. Let it cook until tomatoes are mushy and ghee seperates.
- Now to this, add the prepared spinach puree. Mix it well. Let the curry come to a soft boil.
- Add the paneer cubes to the curry. Crush 1 tablespoon of kasuri methi between your palms and add it to the curry. Mix it well, and add a little water if required to adjust the consistency of the palak paneer.
- Mix it well, and turn off the flame. Add heavy cream!
Add The Tempering
- In a small saucepan, add 2 to 3 teaspoons of ghee/oil. Once hot, add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add 2 dried red chilies.
- Once the cumin seeds splutter, add garlic cloves and cook them until golden.
- Now add ¼th teaspoon of Kashmiri Red Chili Powder, and turn off the stove.
- Add the prepared tempering to the palak paneer
Serving Suggestion
- Serve the Palak Paneer hot, with your favorite naan, roti, paratha or jeera rice!
Notes
- Use baby spinach or tender spinach leaves to make this curry. Discard any hard mature stems from the spinach, as they can make this palak paneer taste bitter.
- Cook the gravy in oil or vegan butter, and add tofu to make it vegan. Finish the curry with a generous drizzle of coconut milk, and coconut cream.
- If you want to skip adding heavy cream, add one-third a cup of cashews, along with onions. Once the cashews soften and onions cook, add roughly chopped spinach. The cashews will render a creamy spinach curry.
- Adjust the consistency of the palak paneer by adding a little water. Keep the curry thick if you are enjoying it with naans or parathas. You can keep it a little runny if enjoying it with rice.
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