Palak (Spinach) Paneer Curry:-

Palak paneer is a famous Indian Curry which is prepared by cooking paneer cubes in spinach (palak) gravy and the soft paneer cubes in a gravy tastes so much delicious. This curry is full of iron, protiens and many other nutrients and unlike other curries of spinach this curry is liked by children also. So, lets start preparing curry:-

Ingredients

1. Spinach (Palak):- 250-300 gms (after plucking leaves from stem)
2. Cottage Cheese (Paneer):- 200 gms
3. Tomato:- 2
4. Ghee:- 2.5 tablespoon
5. Green Chilli:- 2
6. Salt:- 1-1.25 teaspoon (depends on gravy consistency)
7. Red Chilli Powder:- 3/4 teaspoon
8. Coriander Powder:- 2 teaspoon
9. Turmeric Powder:- 1/4 teaspoon
10. Asafoetida:- 1 pinch
11. Cumin Seeds:- 1/4 teaspoon
12. Black Mustard Seeds:- 1/4 teaspoon

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Method

• Pluck spinach leaves from its stem and wash them 3-4 times so that soil or dirt will remove from them.
• Wash tomatoes and green chillies and make a fine paste of them by grinding them in a blender. Also, cut cottage cheese in 1-1.5 inch cubes.
• Take a pan and pour 1.5 cup of water in it. Now, add washed spinach in it and let it boil for 5-6 min.
• Turn off the gas. Let it cool down and then take out boiled spinach from it in a blender jar, leaving the spinach stock in a pan which we use later.
• Now, make a fine paste of boiled spinach by grinding it in a blender.
• Take a pan and pour ghee in it. Let it heat. When the ghee is sufficiently hot add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and asafoetida in it.
• After that when mustard seeds started to pop then add tomato paste in it and saute for 1 min. then add 1/2 teaspoon salt and saute again for 2 min. then add turmeric powder, coriander powder and red chilli powder in it and saute till ghee comes over that tomato paste (for 2-3 min).
• Now, add spinach paste and then add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt to it. Saute it for 3-4 min. and then add spinach stock and 1 to 1.5 cup of water in it depending on how thick curry you want. Let it boil and then add paneer cubes in it.
• Let it cook for 2-3 min. and turn off the gas.
• Our Palak Paneer is ready to serve. Serve it hot or warm with roti/rice/bread/paratha/poori/naan etc.

Important Points

1. While you are using spinach stock, leave some stock in a pan because sometimes when you don’t wash spinach properly, some sand particles will come in stock which will settle down. So, let stock stand for a while and then slowly transfer stock in other bowl leaving some stock in a pan.