Palak Paneer No Onion No Garlic / Palak Paneer Recipe
It is a great way to include greens in our diet with such a delicious recipe. Palak Paneer is wholesome, satisfying, and best served with Naan or Rice.
Ingredients
For Spinach Puree:
- 2 medium bunches of spinach or 300gms of spinach leaves
- ½ Cup fresh coriander leaves
For Gravy:
- 1 tablespoon oil or butter
- 2 Green chilis roughly chopped
- 1 - 1½ inch ginger peeled and roughly chopped
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida / Hing ((Hing))
- 10 Cashews
- 1 Large tomato
For Palak Paneer:
Instructions
For Spinach Puree:
- Remove the stems from the spinach. If the stems are very tender, and if you prefer, you can keep them. I always discard the stems and use only spinach leaves.
- Rinse the spinach thoroughly with running water, and make sure to remove any dirt or sand from the leaves.
- Bring 4 cups of water to boil in a large pot. Once the water starts boiling, add spinach leaves and cook for a minute. Then turn off the heat.
- Take ice cubes (or cold water with some ice cubes) in a medium bowl. Remove spinach with the tong or a slotted spoon from the pot and place it immediately in the bowl of ice. Placing the spinach into an ice bowl will retain the color and will stop further cooking of spinach.
- Allow the spinach to cool down for a few minutes, and then remove the ice water. Take spinach leaves (no need to squeeze the spinach leaves) into a blender jar and add fresh coriander leaves.
- Blend the spinach and coriander leaves into a smooth spinach or Palak puree, set aside.
For The Gravy:
- Heat oil in a pan and add green chilis and ginger. Saute for a minute.
- Add asafoetida and cashews, cook for a minute or until cashews are lightly golden.
- Add tomatoes and mix well. Continue cooking the mixture until tomatoes are soft and pulpy.
- Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down a bit.
- Take it into a blender jar and blend it into a smooth puree.
For Palak Paneer:
- Take a prepared tomato and cashew puree into the same pan. Turn on the heat and bring the gravy to a boil.
- Add a prepared spinach puree and mix well. Continue cooking for two minutes.
- Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, and Garam Masala powder. Mix well and cook for two minutes.
- Add paneer cubes, milk, and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly, turn the heat on low and, cover the pan with a lid.
- Cook Palak Paneer for 5 minutes, and remove the lid.
- Add dried fenugreek leaves and lime juice. Mix well and turn off the heat.
- Transfer the Palak Paneer into a serving bowl.
Garnishing Suggestions:
- Garnish the bowl of Palak Paneer with butter or a tablespoon of cream.
- We can also garnish it with some chopped ginger and lime wedges.
Serving Suggestions:
- We love Palak Paneer with Naan. And it also goes well with Roti or Paratha.
- The other best way is to serve with steamed Basmati Rice or Jeera Rice.
Notes
- Palak: Choose fresh and tender spinach leaves. If stems are very delicate, and if you prefer, you can keep them; otherwise, discard the stems and use only leaves.
- Paneer: Make sure that Paneer is also fresh and soft. If you have kept Paneer in the fridge, bring it to room temperature before adding it to the Palak puree. The other way to soften the Paneer is to place it in a Ziploc bag or container and place it in hot water for 10-15 minutes.
- Cashews: If you don’t want to use cashews, skip it from the recipe. But make sure to use 3-4 tablespoon of cream. Add cream just before adding the fenugreek leaves and mix well. The other options are to use yogurt or blanched almonds.
- Blanching: Blanching is very important to retain the color and nutrients of the spinach. Do not overcook or pressure cook the spinach leaves. If Palak is soft and tender, blanching for a minute is enough. But if your spinach is not too fresh and tender and leaves are very big, blanch them for 2-3 minutes.
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