It's been raining for the last 2 days in Singapore and I've been spending a lot of time in my kitchen. Presenting to you my mom's rendition of the classic go-to vegetarian gravy, Palak Paneer. Packed with iron and protein, this dish is super easy to make, but you have to ensure you get these hacks right. I've burnt my fingers (metamorphic-ally) by cutting down on a few steps to save time, and the end result was a disaster.
Recipe and Cooking Hacks for a delicious, nutritious Palak Paneer:
Pressure Cook your spinach
Chop the spinach cord and wash it thoroughly.
Put this in a pressure cooker, add 1 tbsp salt and pressure cook it on medium flame for 2 mins. Do not add water to this to ensure it's boiled, and not mushy.
Once it cools down, blend the spinach to form a puree.
Blend Your Masala
In a blender, add 1 onion, 1 tomato, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, and 1 green chili to form a curry paste.
Use a tad bit milk instead of heavy cream
I'm always looking for ways to make my Indian curries healthy, and I'm not okay with using cream in my daily cooking. So, just like my mom, I replace cream with just a tad bit of milk to cut the bitterness of spinach and give it a rich flavour.
Recipe
Let's move on to the recipe now:-
Heat 1 tbs oil in a pan. Add 1 tsp cumin seeds to this. Saute until the cumin seeds are light brown.
Add the curry paste you made to this and saute that until oil starts to separate.
To this, add dry spices - 1/2 tsp salt (as there's salt in the spinach puree too), 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp coriander powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and saute this until the color changes to brown.
Add 1 tbsp milk to the pan and saute it for another minute. This will cut the bitterness of spinach and will give your recipe a creamy taste and texture without using dollop of heavy cream.
To this creamy and mild curry paste, add the spinach puree and 1/2 a cup water. Stir well and add cubes of paneer (cottage cheese) to this. Mix it together, and let it simmer and you're done! Serve hot with a parantha or chapati.
If you make my Mom’s Palak Paneer, please be sure to tag @that_marketing_girl in your Instagram stories! I would also love it if you could comment below and rate this recipe with your honest thoughts! If you aren't following me on Instagram yet, be sure to follow me ENJOY :)
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