Palak Paneer
Calorie for calorie; spinach with its delicate smooth and bright green color provides more nutrients than any other food. Loaded with folates, iron and vitamins A and C, it is extremely rich in antioxidants. Who can forget our childhood comic friend Popeye, whose superhuman strength came from addiction to this “power packed” vegetable making him invulnerable to bullets, alien weapons and even capable of performing feats like flying or fast swimming. To gain maximum benefit from spinach its best to eat it raw or steam it rather than boiling it. I normally add spinach to a dish towards the end to retain its nutritional value to the highest.
Palak paneer is a healthy North Indian dish generally served with roti or naan though can be eaten with rice as well. I wash the spinach leaves and quick steam them with minced ginger, garlic and green chillies. They soften within 5 minutes in their own juices and on cooling grind into a paste. Then add tadka and paneer and voila the dish is ready within 15 minutes.
Palak paneer is a healthy North Indian dish generally served with roti or naan though can be eaten with rice as well. I wash the spinach leaves and quick steam them with minced ginger, garlic and green chillies. They soften within 5 minutes in their own juices and on cooling grind into a paste. Then add tadka and paneer and voila the dish is ready within 15 minutes.
Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
Method:
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch spinach leaves washed thoroughly and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 green chilies
- 1 cup paneer cubed and sautéed light brown
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped ginger and some julienned for garnishing
- 1 medium tomato chopped
- 1tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- Salt for taste
- 1 tsp Garam masala
- 4 tbsp whole milk/cream
- Oil/butter
Method:
- Steam the spinach leaves in a pot with ginger, garlic and chilies. Drain any excess juices or liquid. On cooling, grind it into a fine paste.
- Heat some oil in a pan and fry juliennes of ginger till they are light brown. Keep them aside for garnishing.
- In the same pan, add cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add onions and cook till they are light brown. Add tomatoes, turmeric, salt and garam masala and cook them together for 5 minutes.
- Now add the spinach and mix all the ingredients well. Add milk/cream and paneer .Cover the pan and let it cook for 10 minutes on medium heat.
- Garnish with ginger juliennes and serve hot.
