Palak Paneer

The spinach is boiled and pureed before anything else, and only spinach goes in.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (paneer), dairy (whole milk), dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 800 g spinach
• 300 g Paneer, as on its own page, in cubes
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 300 g tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground red chilli
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 3 tablespoons ghee
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Method

1. THE SPINACH IS BOILED AND PUREED BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, AND ONLY SPINACH GOES IN. Its article gives the order plainly: prepared by FIRST boiling and pureeing spinach, the puree then mixed with sauteed tomatoes and onions, and GRILLED cubes of paneer added to the puree. And it is careful about the greens -- a version containing other leaves such as mustard greens is saag and not this, which only contains spinach. So the spinach is cooked separately and arrives as a finished puree, rather than being wilted into a gravy, and that is why the colour stays green.
2. THE SPINACH IS BOILED BRIEFLY AND COOLED FAST. Two minutes in boiling water, then straight into cold. Long boiling turns it olive and no amount of blending brings the colour back.
3. IT IS SQUEEZED HARD BEFORE BLENDING. Eight hundred grams of leaf holds a surprising amount of water, and all of it ends up in the gravy otherwise.
4. THE PUREE IS MADE WITHOUT ADDED WATER. It will blend on what it has. Water here means a thin gravy you then have to reduce, which costs the colour again.
5. THE ONIONS AND TOMATOES ARE COOKED FIRST, SEPARATELY FROM THE SPINACH. Onions to golden, then the ginger and garlic, then the ground spices, then the tomatoes until the fat separates.
6. THE PANEER IS GRILLED BEFORE IT GOES IN, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SPECIFIES. Grilled cubes -- browned on a hot dry pan or under a grill until they colour at the edges. That is a different dish from soft unfried cubes, and here the source makes the choice rather than the cook.
7. THE PUREE GOES IN LAST AND IS NOT BOILED. Stirred into the tomato base and warmed through for three or four minutes only.
8. THE GARAM MASALA IS THE LAST THING IN. Off the heat, stirred through.
9. ITS ARTICLE SUGGESTS RAW ONION ON THE SIDE. Served hot with roti, naan, paratha, makki ki roti or rice, and with onions alongside.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes