Palak Paneer

I have a love hate relationship with this veggie dish. It mostly feels to bland and more so when some recipes use cream in the making. I also have been put off by what I have identified as too many steps to preparation of it. I tend to use palak (spinach) in another recipe of mong dal with palak. Again, I have not made it in ages for it ends up slightly bland. Maybe I am being stingy in the spicing or is it that I forget to add more to counter the natural bland taste of the ingredients. This time when I got a bag of small palak and almost forgot it in the fridge I decided to make sure it does not get thrown away and salad is not an option as it is not hot enough during the day to just have a large salad for dinner. And surprise there was also some paneer in the fridge… maybe the universe is saying make the damn palak paneer! I looked up a few different recipes and decided to mix them up and come up with my own.

Ingredients 

• 250 gm of paneer cut into pieces to the size you want
• 120 – 150 gm of palak (leaves only)
• 1 medium red onion thinly sliced (you can use brown or even white onion)
• 2 medium green chillies finely sliced
• ½ inch ginger finely sliced
• 5 – 6 cloves of garlic sliced (optional)
• 1 large tomato chopped 
• ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
•  Salt to taste
• 1 table spoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

Method

• Wash and drain the palak. Boil water and add the palak and blanch for a minute. Drain and put aside to cool.
• Into the pain add the oil and cumin and sauté till it starts browning.
• Add the sliced onion, ginger, chillies and garlic and sauté the masala till onions are translucent. Remove half of the masala into a plate and cool it off.
• To the left-over masala in the pan add tomatoes and continue cooking till tomatoes are soft and breaking up.
• Put the cooled palak and the onion ginger garlic and chilli mix in a food processer and grind it coarsely. Many recipes call for very fine grinding but I prefer coarse to retain some texture.
• Once the tomatoes are cooked add the spices and cook for a further few minutes till the oil is released from the cooked masala.
• Then add the ground palak into the masala. Stir well and add a couple of spoons of water to loosen the mixture. Cover with lid and cook for a about 3 – 5 mins on medium heat so that the palak is fully cooked. 
• Add the paneer and stir well. Again, cover the pan and leave to cook for a few minutes so that the paneer gets warmed up and absorbs the spice flavours.

Tips to Serve

• Add a table spoon of cream / malai or butter and stir well. 
• Garnish with some fresh chopped coriander.
• Serve with naan or paratha or roti.

I must say the spicing was exactly right. I added some butter to get a richer taste. The taste was hot and tangy and I was very happy with the overall flavour.