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Palak paneer recipe, how to make palak paneer

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Palak-paneer-recipe

Palak paneer is a popular north Indian side dish for flat breads. How to make without changing the colour to get greenish gravy.

I was not a big fan of palak paneer (yeah🤪)until I tasted at The Mango tree restaurant here in Singapore. So I have never tried at home too obviously. This is the first time I am trying this. Now I am liking slowly. Since my kiddo loves paneer, as well as palak this is a nice way to make him eat spinach…he eats palak poori and this comes next in his favorite.

To prepare a perfect green palak paneer, we must take care to retain the green colour of the palak, also it should not be under cooked as it could cause stomach upset as well as bitter gravy.

Why is my Palak paneer bitter?

Palak paneer turns bitter if the palak is not cooked properly. This is one of the main reasons.

Other reasons for bitter gravy?

In this particular recipe, if the spice powder is added more, or burnt while roasting (whole spices we powder) or the garam masala is added more at the end. Not adding enough tomato to balance the taste also causes it taste bitter.

Palak paneer
Palak paneer
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Palak paneer recipe

Palak paneer is a popular Indian side dish for flat breads. Instead of blanching, I like to sautee the palak for bright green colour. Step by step pictures post.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 4
Cup measurements

Ingredients

  • Palak – 2 cups Tighyly packed, Indian spinach
  • Onion – 1 big
  • Paneer cubes – 1 & 1/2 cups Measured after thawing
  • Tomato – 2
  • Green chillies – 5
  • Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
  • Coriander seeds powder – 1 tsp
  • Kasoori methi – 1 tsp
  • Sugar 1/2 tsp
  • Milk/ cream – 1/4 cup
  • Oil / butter – 3 tbsp
  • Salt – as needed

To roast and powder

  • Cinnamon – 1/2 inch piece
  • Cardamom – 1
  • Cloves 1
  • Pepper – 1 tsp
  • Cumin seeds/ Jeera – 1 tsp

Instructions

  • Wash spinach, drain excess water. Remove the stem part from the leaf. Tear off any thick stem part in the middle of the leaves too..)
  • Chop the onion and tomatoes finely. Gather other ingredients needed.
  • In a pan, heat 1/2 tsp of ghee and fry the items in the 'To roast and powder'. Add every thing together except cumin seeds and roast.
  • Add cumin seeds lastly as it gets fried in no time. Do not burn anything which will turn the gravy bitter. Keep a side. I powdered this using a hand mortar and pestle in to a fine powder.
  • In the same pan, add the washed palak leaves and fry till it reduces in volume. The water in the leaves is enough to make it shrink. If you need all few drops of oil while frying. Transfer to a plate and cool down.
  • Grind it with the green chillies, water if needed.
  • Heat pan and add the oil and fry onions thoroughly till it turns golden brown. Add turmeric and coriander powder and give it a quick stir in low flame.
  • Add the tomatoes and little salt to make the tomatoes cook fast. Add the kasoori methi now, crush them in between your palms.
  • When the tomatoes turn mushy, add the ground palak paste, sugar. Fry in low flame for 4-5 minutes till oil separates or till the raw smell disappears and the palak gets cooked well.
  • Mean while boil water in another vessel and add the paneer and switch off the stove and keep covered till use. Drain the paneer and add it to the palak gravy.
  • Add milk and mix or cream slowly as you keep mixing in low flame and just bring to boil.
  • Add the powdered garam masala.Mix well.Transfer to the serving bowl and serve with hot roti or naan.

Notes

  • I preferred sautéing the leaves than boil, you can try blanching too. Make sure not over cook the palak,or you wont get green gravy.
  • You can add a pinch of cooking soda for the palak to retain its green while boiling.
  • Adding sugar helps retain green of the palak.
  • If your palak and green chillies are not cooked properly, it will turn the gravy bitter.
  • I have avoided using red chilli powder and used green chilli and pepper for spiciness. This ensures giving a good green colour to the gravy.
  • Use cream in place of milk for extra richness. Also curd or sour cream works fine.
  • For lazy version, you can avoid the spice/ masala grinding  part and add garam masala instead.
  • After adding paneer cubes, do not cook long time as it will make paneer turn hard. Use fresh paneer for best results. 
  • Soaking in hot water helps softening the paneer.

Palak paneer step by step:

  1. Wash spinach, drain excess water. Remove the stem part from the leaf. Tear off any thick stem part in the middle of the leaves too..)
  2. Chop the onion and tomatoes finely. Gather other ingredients needed.
  3. In a pan, heat 1/2 tsp of ghee and fry the items in the ‘To roast and powder’. Add every thing together except cumin seeds and roast.step 1 roast
  4. Add cumin seeds lastly as it gets fried in no time. Do not burn anything which will turn the gravy bitter. Keep a side. I powdered this using a hand mortar and pestle in to a fine powder.
  5. In the same pan, add the washed palak leaves and fry till it reduces in volume. The water in the leaves is enough to make it shrink. If you need all few drops of oil while frying. Transfer to a plate and cool down.step 2 sautee
  6. Grind it with the green chillies, water if needed.step 3 grind
  7. Heat pan and add the oil and fry onions thoroughly till it turns golden brown. Add turmeric and coriander powder and give it a quick stir in low flame.step 4 fry onion
  8. In goes the tomatoes and little salt to make the tomatoes cook fast. Add the kasoori methi now, crush them in between your palms.step 5 tomatoes
  9. When the tomatoes turn mushy, add the ground palak paste, sugar. Fry in low flame for 4-5 minutes till oil separates or till the raw smell disappears and the palak gets cooked well.step 6 add puree
  10. Mean while boil water in another vessel and add the paneer and switch off the stove and keep covered till use. Drain the paneer and add it to the palak gravy.step 7 add paneer
  11. Add milk and mix or cream slowly as you keep mixing in low flame and just bring to boil.
  12. Add the powdered garam masala.Mix well. Transfer to the serving bowl.step 8 garam masala

Goes well with roti or any other flat breads like naan, paratha etc. Also goes well with mild pulao.

palak-paneer

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Comments

  55. Sathya

    Hi I made palak paneer yesterday for dinner and it turned out to be yummy..my family loved it..thanks for the same..ur step by step pic is awesome..today try'n garlic bun…will tell u how it was….

    Reply

  56. RV

    Mouthwatering Raks. This is one of my favorite restaurant curries. I used to order this often before my marriage. But TH doesn't like to eat vegetarian curries so I end up ordering his favorites now.

    Reply

  58. Megha

    Did I mention, m getting crazy about your cooking style.. well.. since m crazy about Paneer too.. (have you tried Paneer Malai MEthi, thats like my fav fav dish!! 🙁 I dont know how to make it though 😀 ) .. and I want to know how did you make Palak pooris.. man.. m loving the way you have arranged the step by step pics.. m coming back again.. too much of temptation already!!

    Can I Also tell you one thing.. m so busy checking the recipes, i dont even know your name. pls excuse me for my stupidity.. 😀 n m sure if i try these recipes my mom will love me because they r all Indian recipes.. she is kind of bored now..with me baking cakes all the time.. lol.. he he he..

    Love,
    MEgha.. 🙂

    Reply

  60. Deepa

    Hi Raks!
    Tried this recipe last night. Was very easy to follow and came out well too. I just reduced the number of chillies a bit for the sake of my three-year old.

    Thank you very much.

    🙂

    Reply

  63. RENU

    hi rajeshwari
    i made palak paneer a few times…this time iadded red chilli powder instead of green chilli powder….can we replace it?it came out good….

    Reply

  65. RENU

    hi rajeshwari
    i made palak paneer yesterday…i added cream instead of milk n red chilli powder instead of green chilli….it came out o well…even i was supraised…i like the last when u add pepper cumin powder..wow….thanks a lot…i love this palak paneer becos of ur recipe i made it well.

    Reply

  68. farnaz

    Hey Rak's I have a question regarding this dish, Why u boil the paneer? here in USA paneer is not fresh so it might be broken while boiling,I am afraid of doing this. I want to lush green color of my dish so after grinding palak is it ok that not to cook palak, just mix it well with tomato gravy?

    Reply

  69. farnaz

    Hey Rak's I have a question regarding paneer,
    Why you boil the paneer ? I am afraid of doing this because here in USA paneer is not fresh so it might be broken while boiling. And what should I do if I want to lush green color of my dish? Is it ok to after grinding the palak not to cook it so much, just mix it well with gravy?

    Reply

  70. RAKS KITCHEN

    Just boil water and switch off the stove, add paneer to it and keep covered until you use, do not boil in water. hope this helps. Immersing in hot water makes paneer soft, otherwise it would be hard in the mid.

    Reply

  73. RAKS KITCHEN

    Nikhat, sorry about ur experience…

    Reasons for the gravy getting bitter :

    Your masala you fried got burnt or it was more.
    Coriander powder more
    Palak not cooked properly (or fried)
    Your tomato was not enough tangy to balance the taste….

    Hope this helps…

    Reply

  81. pyariwaseema

    i seldom leave comments but i could not stop myself from leaving a heartfelt compliment 🙂

    Ur recipies are just AWESOME……

    Tried palak paneer for the very first time and it turned out fantabulous, the best part my kid liked it and my hubby literally cleaned the entire kadai in which i served the curry 🙂 The next day my daughter asked me for palak paneer again….I must thank you so much for ur simple and tasty curries. i also tried mixed vegetable kurma/ puliogare/brinjal fry/ tomato peas pulav/ sambar and they were all super duper hit.. thnx so much.

    Reply

  84. CA Swati

    Hi Raks,

    The recipe is indeed amazing. My bro cooked it for me and it tasted so good. Thanks for making by bro such a talented cook 🙂

    I have a suggestion. Tempered whole red chilli adds real good flavour to palak paneer. You can try it…

    Thanks again
    Swati

    Reply

  86. krithika mouli

    Hi,
    i gave this recipe to my ameteur cooking husband and he did jus an awesome job.it tasted just so great:)cant even summarise how much i liked it.thanks for such an easy step by step process.ur site is making my job much easier these days in kitchen:)

    Reply

  88. Hardy Party

    I tried to make this last night and it did not come our very well. I do not have access to Palak/Indian spinach so I used baby spinach. I was unsure on the volume. I used 2 jalapeno peppers for the chilies, and it was overpowing. You say to add garam masala at the end, but there is no measurement for it. I love saag paneer and I was hoping this would get me to that wonderful flavor but it did not.

    Reply

  89. Truthful WalKing

    This was my first recipe from your website and now i visit your blog every now and then to try out something new. Your pictures are so perfect. I have tried this recipe of yours 3 or 4 times and it has come out well everytime.

    Reply

  91. chitra vasu

    Hi! Tried yr indian style fried rice for lunch and i didnt have enuf left for me! Hubby and kids skipped the rest of the dishes and had only fried rice 🙂 Going to try palak paneer for dinner. Will write to u abt it tmoro. Also tried yr paneer butter masala, which was excellent. My sincere thanks to you. Chitra

    Reply

  97. vinita patange

    Thanks 4 ur prompt rpl dear, was waing since lng.im gr8 fan of ur receipes.spend most of my time viewing ur receipe n this is 1st receipe I tried.i hve a request 4 u, can u plz post some receipe 4 toddlers, I have 2yr old baby who want new taste all da time…also u look vry young n beautiful, was surprised 2 knw ur mom of 2…Santoor Santoor. .kidding

    Reply

  101. VIJI

    I tried the simple version just cooked spinach with shallots and green chillies ,added the late sautéed onion with red chilly powder ,it was yummy

    Reply

  112. susan

    Hi! QQ: Do you add water when you grind the palak and chilly? I tried without water and it turned out to be a thick paste. Not as liquid as shown in your pictures. I also used baby spinach instead of palak. Do you think that may be a reason why it didn't turn out paste when grind-ed without water?

    Reply

  113. Raks anand

    It was the water that was intact with the leaves after washing. When I sautee, it leaves out the water and I grind it along with it. But that should not be a problem to you, just water content 🙂

    Reply

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