Palak Paneer (Indian Fresh Spinach With Paneer Cheese)

Palak Paneer (Indian Fresh Spinach With Paneer Cheese)

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hrs
  • Servings: 6
  • About This Recipe

    “Creamy and rich, a delight to eat. A dish I fell in love with at a local restaurant and adapted a recipe to closely resemble theirs.”

    Ingredients

  • 2 (5ounce) bags baby spinach
  • 1largeonion
  • 1/4 teaspooncinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoonground cardamom
  • 1teaspoonground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoonchopped garlic
  • 1/2 cupchopped tomato
  • 3tablespoonsplain yogurt
  • 1tablespooncoriander powder
  • 1/2 teaspoongaram masala
  • 1/2 teaspoonpaprika
  • 1/2 teaspoonsalt
  • 8ouncespaneer cheese, cut into cubes
  • 1/4 cupheavy cream
  • Directions

  • Cut spinach into shreds and cook in 3 tablespoons water until tender; remove from heat.
  • Saute onion, cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger in 1-2 tablespoons ghee or oil until onion is translucent.
  • Then add garlic and chopped tomatoes, and reduce heat.
  • Cook this briefly and slowly blend in yogurt a little at a time to prevent curdling.
  • Add coriander, garam masala, paprika, and salt, mixing well.
  • Add cooked spinach with liquid, cover and simmer on low heat for approximately 20-30 minutes.
  • Remove from heat.
  • Take half of spinach mixture and puree in food processor or blender, and return to mixture and stir.
  • Slowly stir in heavy cream, and heat through on low heat.
  • Add paneer cubes.
  • Serve.
  • Reviews

  • “Not exactly what I was looking for, but still pretty tasty.I used whole coriander, and didn’t care for the seeds/texture (my fault).Going to try this one again but adjust the spices a little.If you can’t find the paneer, an excellent substitute is Mexican Queso Blanco (aka queso fresco) – the texture & taste is very similar.”

  • “I made half a recipe for the two of us and it was great.Loved all the flavors and how they meld together.I made homemade paneer Recipe #207389 to use in the recipe.Served with Recipe #277765, Naan plus puppodums as an appetizer.”

  • “Fantastic recipe. I like this much better than our local Indian restaurant’s palak paneer. I think I added a little more cream because I had to warm it longer at the end (I could only find frozen paneer.) I used normal spinach leaves, and it made it stringy so next time I’ll be sure to find the baby spinach. I feel about twenty pounds overweight from dinner, but fiance and I really loved this. Thanks!! “

  • “This is a really tasty recipe.I used Stinging Nettles in place of the spinach but followed the recipe pretty much exactly as written.I think I’ll add a bit more spice next time as I like this with a strongerflavour.I served it with a combo of wild and brown rice.Thanks for posting I’ll make this again.”

  • “Really fantastic, delicious.Couldn’t get better at a restaurant.I made my own fat-free paneer for this and followed the recipe to a T.Next time I will add some cayenne for some heat.I don’t think it makes 6 servings though–not for an entree anyway.It came out to 2-3 modest portions.This is a major keeper!”

  • “We absolutely love this recipe and have made it several times for guests. I use half and half instead of the heavy cream. It freezes really well to reheat for lunch. Both our Indian and American friends give this one two thumbs up!”

  • “as is, this recipe is pretty good. i made it once, and then subsequently tweaked it to suit our tastes more. i omitted the paprika and added an equivalent amount of cayenne powder. i also used 3/4tsp each of cumin seeds and mustard seeds and sauteed it along with the onion. i then added the spinach directly to the onion, tomato and spices (i didn’t see the need to cook the spinach separately). i also pureed all the spinach and added 4tbsp of half and half at the end of cooking, instead of the yoghurt, this way it turned out super-creamy. it was perfect this way, and i will be making it with these modifications in future. “

  • “Wow, Sue L – this was delicious!Even my husband who does not like any kind of leaf said so!!The only minor change I made was to puree the full spinach mixture in the blender rather than half as your recipe suggests cos that way my DH would not know what the gravy was :).But he liked it even after I told him what it was.So thank you once, twice and many times more for an easy and tasty way to make my DH eat some leaves!!!”

  • “My wife thanks you.I thank you.This is good stuff.”

  • “Amazing!I am addicted!I found this recipe a little laborious to make but well worth the effort and pile of dishes it created.The spices and flavors are spot-on — tastes just like the palak paneer at my fav Indian restaurant.I used Mexican queso blanco in place of the paneer and it worked perfectly (substitution based on a recommendation from a cooking blog); I was able to buy a bunch of queso blanco at Costco for cheap.I would suggest doubling this recipe, as the spinach cooks down significantly… and it’s so yummy, you’ll wish you had more.”

  • “The flavor is outstanding. We followed the recipe exactly except for adding a coriander/cumin spice mix vs pure coriander (just what I had in the pantry). We used a wok and a Vitamix blender. This would be a five star recipe if we had pureed 1/4 instead of 1/2 the spinach. With 1/2 there was too much puree and it was more soupy than ideal. However, if you close your eyes it’s outstanding. We made homemade paneer using this recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/paneer-homemade-indian-cheese-recipe/index.html”

  • “I agree, more cream is needed and it could use a bit more heat. Also, I used regular frozen spinach and it was stringy and also got strings all caught up in my immersian blender. I replaced yoghurt with sour cream as well, and I think that was fine.”

  • “This is a very good recipe. I tweaked it a little by adding 1/2 tsp of curry powder and dash of cumin powder. I also, added a fresh grated ginger and omittted the coriander did not have any on hand.I used chili ready tomatoes from Walmart and a 1 tbspn of sugar to get rid of the twang. It turned out really good my family and friends love love it!”

  • “A keeper, though I used two 9 oz. bags of baby spinach.Other ingredients as written.
    Second time, it doubled very nicely, using two large boxes of organic baby spinach.I used a hand blender before adding the paneer and it turned a quite soupy mixture into just the right texture.Extremely well received.”

  • “Wife and I loved it – restaurant quality”

  • “Really good!”

  • “I really enjoyed the spice combination….used 10 oz of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of moisture before adding.In addition I added more yogurt and a pinch of sugar at the end for creaminess.”

  • “This is such a delicious recipe for palak paneer. It was better than any I’ve had around town. Super easy to make, too. Thank you so much!”

  • “How did I not review this before? Ahhh! This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever made, I swear. It’s perfect. I use fat-free half and half instead of heavy cream and I found that the blending step is unnecessary (the results are different, but good either way). I featured this in my food-blog, which you can see at https://bit.ly/cSYfG9 Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe!”

  • ← PREV POST NEXT POST →
    ORIGNAL POST