This Homemade Quick and Easy Palak Paneer Recipe promises to be healthy and delicious! Let’s make this winter special by choosing to have fresh spinach leaves and desi ghee. Find out how little tweaks to the traditional Palak Paneer make it an easy recipe for busy people! Healthy Palak Paneer Recipe is a gluten-free Indian recipe that is made using fresh spinach or palak leaves (boiled and blended in a paste) with paneer added to this palak gravy. It is one of the most popular main courses of Indian cuisine made in winter. Winters are absolutely dull without green leafy vegetables like methi, palak, saag, and bathua. My day begins with a bathua paratha almost daily in winter. Here in India, most of us are at the top of world to know when lunch or dinner has methi or makki ki roti with sarson ka saag. This recipe of low-calorie Spinach Paneer is a gentle twist to the classic Palak Paneer recipe and is made in one pot and absolutely without any cream. The traditional recipe involves boiling spinach leaves, cooling and blending, and then tempering them with onion, garlic, and tomato. I have made little tweaks to it in order to make it quick and yet super healthy and delicious by dunking everything except paneer in the pressure cooker with spinach for boiling and later tempering with Ghee. If you are looking for easy paneer recipes, you have landed on the right page! Find Popular Paneer Recipes: Paneer Jalfrezi Recipe, Air Fryer Paneer Tikka, Healthy Paneer Roll.
Why Would You Love This Recipe?
Simple yet Elegant Spinach Recipe. Uses Fresh and easily available ingredients. Made from scratch. Healthy and Low Calorie Vegetarian Paneer Recipe. Gluten Free, Nut Free, Cream Free Recipe. Kids Friendly. Scalable Recipe. Super Quick and Easy Recipe for Beginners. The Best Healthy Palak Paneer Recipe Ever!
Ingredients Overview
You need fresh Spinach (Palak) leaves and if you don’t have spinach locally available, feel free to use your local greens like Kale. Though I haven’t tried this recipe with Kale leaves, I guess they would be a good substitute. Looking forward to my readers for sharing their experiences. I had boiled freshly sorted and washed spinach leaves along with Onion, Garlic, Ginger, tomato, and green chilies. Once it cools off, blend it and add raw paneer along with a tempering of Red Chilly, Jeera (Cumin), Heeng in Desi Ghee!
How is this recipe of Palak Paneer Healthy?
This recipe makes no use of any cream! I think this answers 80% of your question. We all know that Indian dishes made in restaurants are made tasty by deliberately adding extra cream or butter and however great they may taste, they are totally unhealthy. Heating Butter over and over again is not doing any good to your heart. I have added warm Desi ghee Tadka at the last when the whole dish is ready. I prefer to use the freshly sorted spinach leaves, not the frozen ones. It is a blend of rich nutrients like Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Vitamin A & C, and loads of loads of fiber.
What to team Palak Paneer with?
You may have Homemade wheat Paratha, chapati, or rice with palak paneer.
Jeera Rice Indian Lemon Rice Pumpkin Paratha Bathua Paratha
Expert Tips
Make sure to blend boiled spinach leaves (along with onion, tomato, etc.) after completely cooling off or else you might spill hot stuff over you. Once the cooker cools off, transfer the content to an open pan to let it cool soon. My version of spicy will not match yours. Even though this post doesn’t say spicy, assume it’s spicy as our appetite for spicy is more. Start with less heat and gradually add more as per your preference. When you add Paneer, cook for few more minutes as paneer leaves water and you need to boil that as well. Don’t add any extra water as Spinach is full of water and you don’t need any water for boiling it in a pressure cooker like other recipes. In fact, in my experience, if we add any water at this step, palak tastes really bitter.
Similar Recipe Suggestions
One may also try making Saag Paneer or Methi Paneer, Aloo Methi, Chana Dal Palak (Lentil Spinach Curry). If fresh spinach leaves are not available, one may use Kasuri Methi (dried fenugreek leaves). They taste amazing in Methi Malai Matar. I prefer using fresh leaves over frozen ones as the fresh spinach leaves take the recipe to another level.
Can I use Homemade Paneer?
Yes! You may use homemade paneer / Indian cottage Cheese. You may curdle the milk using lemon juice and sautee it on simmer for about 15 min (or more depending upon the quantity of milk). For about 1 litre of milk, you may get approx 150 gms of paneer. Since Paneer is my first love, I made Healthy Paneer Tikka for weight loss.
What is the difference between Saag Paneer and Palak Paneer?
Palak Paneer is made using spinach leaves whereas Saag can be made of Mustard green leaves also called Sarson, or bathua ( Chenopodium Album) or any winter greens mixed in a known ratio. Like I make Sarson ka saag by using 1 kg sarson leaves, 250 gm palak leaves, and 250 bathua leaves. I think being an Indian, loving green leafy veggies comes naturally to us, and topping it with desi ghee, teaming them with chapati loaded with white butter makes it an ultimate delight that no dish could really match.
How to make Instant Pot Palak Paneer?
The procedure is almost the same as that with the pressure cooker. Add ghee, spices, onion, tomato, garlic, ginger (all roughly chopped) to the instant pot along with washed chopped spinach leaves. Set it on pressure mode for about 3-4 min. Once it beeps, cool it off, blend, and add salt and paneer. Cook for 2 min and your delicious palak paneer in the instant pot is ready.
Detailed Recipe of Healthy Palak Paneer With Steps
Step 1 Wash, Chop and Boil
Gather spinach leaves. Sort them and wash in a colander. Roughly chop them to add to a pressure cooker. In the same cooker, add washed and chopped onion, green chilly, tomato, ginger and garlic. Boil for two whistles on full flame and let it cook for 10 min on slow flame.
Step 2 Cool and Blend to Add paneer
Cool off and transfer the contents of cooker to a large pan. Let it cool and blend to smooth paste in batches. In the same cooker, add ghee, Cumin seeds, red chilly powder, turmeric powder. Transfer the blended paste to cooker and cook for another 15 min on slow flame or till the water from spinach is absorbed. Add paneer cubes and cook for another 3-4 min.
Step 3 Temper With Ghee and Serve It
The tempering with Ghee and Red chilly powder is optional. You may add just ghee. Top the Palak Paneer with Ghee and Enjoy it with rice or chapati!
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