Palak Paneer Restaurant style
Palak Paneer is a popular Indian vegetarian dish from Punjab. How to make it? Soft cubes of Paneer are cooked in a creamy, luscious, mouth-melting palak gravy flavored with basic Indian spices. Usually indulged with Indian breads like butter naan, tandoori roti,r umali roti, or rice varieties such as jeera rice, pulao.
Ingredients
Blanching the Spinach
- 250 gms Palak baby spinach
- 2-3 tbsp Coriander leaves
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Sugar
- 3-4 cups Water
For Palak Paneer curry
- 4 tbsp Oil
- 100 gms Paneer
- 2 medium size Onion finely chopped
- 1 medium size Tomato finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1/2 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds jeera
- 2-3 tbsp Cream
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1/4 tsp Garam masala
- 1/2 Water hot
- Salt to taste
Second Tadka/Tempering
- 1/2 tbsp Oil or ghee
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 2-4 Garlic cloves chopped
- 2 Dry red chilies
- 1/2 tsp Kashmiri Red Chili powder
Instructions
Blanching the Palak
- Remove the stem, clean, and wash the spinach thoroughly under running water.
- To blanch the palak, heat enough water in a large pot and bring to a rolling boil.
- Add salt and sugar to the hot water and stir.
- Add spinach, coriander, and green chilies. Cook on high flame for 1 minute.
- Strain the spinach leaves and immediately transfer the leaves to the ice-cold water. Let the leaves sit in the cold water for a minute.
- Drain the water and gently press the spinach leaves to remove the excess moisture. Add the leaves to a blender or food processor.
- Blend until a smooth spinach puree. If the ingredients are getting stuck in the blender, add 2-3 tablespoons of ice-cold water to help it puree in the blender. Set it aside.
Making the Palak Paneer
- Heat 2 tbsps oil, ghee, olive oil, or butter in a large pan, or dutch oven over medium flame.
- When hot, add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and let them splatter.
- Add the chopped onions and saute until they being to turn slightly brown.
- Add ginger garlic paste and turmeric powder. Saute till the raw aroma of ginger garlic goes away.
- Then add 1 medium sized chopped tomato. Stir and saute the tomatoes until they turn soft and mushy.
- Once you see fat releasing from the sides of the onion-tomato masala, add salt. Mix very well.
- Now add 1/4th cup of water and saute until the moisture reduces and the fat separates at the sides of the pan.
- Add the spinach puree to the pan and mix well. Saute by stirring frequently until the water reduces and small droplets of oil begin to appear on top of the spinach puree.
- Add about 1/2 cup of hot water. Give a good mix.
- Add paneer cubes to the palak gravy and gently mix.
- Then add 1/4 tsp of garam masala and 1 tsp of crushed dry fenugreek leaves. Mix.
- Lastly, add 1 tbsp butter and 2-3 tbsps cream. Mix well so that the cream gets uniformly incorporated into the spinach gravy.
- Palak Paneer Restaurant style is ready. Serve hot with your choice of flatbread or any rice variety. Transfer it to a serving bowl and top it up with some butter and drizzle cream.
Second Tadka
- Heat ghee in a small pan. Add cumin seeds and chopped garlic and saute till it changes to light golden color.
- Next, add dry red chilies and red chili powder. Pour the tadka over the Palak Paneer.
- Lasooni Palak Paneer Restaurant style is ready to serve. Can garnish with cream.
Notes
Do not over blanch the palak. 1-2 minutes is perfect, palak will lose its texture if blanched for more time.
Modify the green chilies as per your taste.
If using refrigerated paneer, soak it in hot water for 15-30 minutes.
If you want to skip cream, you can replace it with cashews paste.
Kasuri methi powder can be added at the end. As my kiddo does not like the bitter taste, I skip it.
You can add lemon juice at the end. It increases the iron absorption from palak.