The Very Best Palak Paneer
One of our family’s weekly staples is this delicious palak paneer — palak means spinach in Hindi, and believe it or not, it’s one of Charlotte’s favorite lunch meals. It honestly is one of the ultimate definitions of Indian comfort food. Spinach and most all greens become abundant in the colder months, so the spinach gravy with warm spices and lovely aromatics just make for an amazing combination. I’ll include a quick recipe at the bottom for how to make paneer — it’s suprisingly super simple! And honestly, if you’d rather have roasted chicken or potatoes in the gravy, it would be equally as delicious.
Indian spinach is a little different than what you find in the states. Indian spinach is tougher, the stalks thicker, and for this recipe, you’ll need about a gallon of spinach, cooked. Once it’s cooked, you’ll add all of it with a whole bulb of garlic and about an inch of fresh ginger to a blender and blend until smooth (like above).
Like most all Indian recipes, you’ll want to start with frying your aromatics — these are your whole spices that CAN’T be skipped. This recipe calls for cloves, black cardamom, green cardamom, a bay leaf, and the tiniest amount of cinnamon bark. Once you fry these spices for about 30 seconds in some hot oil, you’ll add your tomato & onion puree.
Let’s talk paneer. Our family LOVES it and honestly, in this recipe, it could easily be substituted with a firm tofu, chicken, chickpeas, potatoes — whatever protein you’d prefer. Paneer is basically ricotta cheese with most all of the whey (extra liquid created from it) pressed out. Then you’re able to slice it up into cubes. The texture is what totally makes paneer so delicious.
Once the tomato, onion and spice mixture has been cooked down (about 10-15 minutes), you’ll add the spinach puree. Once the spinach puree has simmered for another 15 - 20 minutes, you’ll add the paneer and stir to coat it all. At the end, you’ll add Kitchen King Masala (which is optional) and if you don’t have it, you could add a little garam masala. If you’re in the states, you can find Kitchen King Masala on amazon or at your local Indian supermarket. If you’re feeding a crowd, this recipe pairs perfectly with my Crockpot Butter Chicken!
The Very Best Palak Paneer
serves 4-6 — 1 hour
8 cups fresh spinach (4 cups cooked spinach)
1 garlic bulb, peeled
1 inch ginger
2 medium red onions
3 roma tomatoes
1/4 cup coconut oil or avocado oil
AROMATICS:
1 black cardamom
4 whole green cardamom
4 whole cloves
1 cm whole cinnamon bark
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
1 pinch of hing (optional)
GROUND SPICES:
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp coriander powder
1.5 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp Kitchen King masala
2 lbs paneer, cubed
Cook spinach and puree with garlic and ginger. Set puree aside.
To a blender, add your onions and tomatoes and puree.
On medium high heat, heat your oil. When the oil is hot, add your aromatics and cook for about 30 seconds until you can start to smell them. Pour the tomato-onion puree. Cook for about 5 minutes and add your ground spices, cooking for another 10-15 minutes.
Pour the spinach (palak) mixture to the pan, lower the heat to medium low, and simmer, covered, for another 15-20 minutes, until you start to see the oil separate from the spinach.
Add the cubed paneer and Kitchen King masala to the pan and stir, simmering for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Serve warm with fresh whole wheat roti.
**Note: if you can’t find kitchen king masala, use garam masala.
**Making paneer is super easy: Boil 1 quart of whole milk and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. Add 2-3 table spoons of vinegar and cut the heat off. The cheese will start to separate or “curdle” and you’ll see the whey and cheese particles. Strain the whey by pouring the mixture in a cheese cloth lined strainer. Shape the paneer into a flat cube and let sit for 4-6 hours with a cast iron (or heavy pot) on top of it.
**This spinach gravy is super delicious with any type of protein, and it’s easy to make it vegan: chickpeas, roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, tofu, black eyed peas, etc. You could also add roasted chicken, as a hearty stew.
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