Palak Paneer-Indian Cottage Cheese with spinach gravy

Palak Paneer is the one of the most famous north Indian dish.Often it is serve with paratha, naan, roti etc. but personally I prefer it with Jeera rice or fried rice.There are too many ways to prepare it. Today I want to share my way of cooking it ,wchich is not only easy but also healthy one.

Category:  Main course

Cuisine:    North Indian

Prep Time:  15  minutes

Cook Time:  20 minutes

Serves:   3-4

Ingredients:

1. 200gm Paneer or Indian cottage cheese
2. 300gm Palak or Indian Spinach (choose the young and tender leaves only and discard the steam)
3. A handfull of coriander leaves (It will enhence colour of the dish)
4. 3 tbsp ghee i.e “clarified butter' / oil
5. 2-3 green chilies
6. 2 medium size onion roughly chopped
7. 1tbs both ginger and garlic roughly chopped
8. 1/2 cup tomatoes chopped
9. salt to taste
10. 1/2tbs turmeric powder
11. 1/2tbs garam masala powder
12. 1 tbs coriander powder
13. 1/2tbs red chilie powder (optional)
14. 1/4 tbs cumin seeds
15. 2 green cardamoms
16. 1 inch cinnamon

Preparation:

1. First clean and rinse the palak thoroughly.
2. Blanched palak with the coriander leaves.
3. Then immerse in ice cold water and drain it well.
4. Coll it completely and blend this into a smooth puree.
   
5. Heat 1 tbsp ghee or oil in a pan, add green chilie and onion into it.Fried it till the onion turns into transparent.
6. Add ginger and garlic into the onion and fry it until the raw smell goes away.
   
7. Then add chopped tomatoes into it. After few seconds add pinch of turmeric powder and salt. Mixed them well until they break down and turn mushy.
8. Keep the mixture aside and cool it down then blend it well.
   
9. In an another pan heat another tbs of ghee or oil, add cinanon and cardamoms and cumin until they sizzle.Add coriander powder and garam masala powder into it. Also you can add red chilie powder at this point (optional).
   
10. Add the onion and tomatoes puree and cook it for few seconds. After that add the pureed spinach and mixed it well. Cook it until it begins to bubble for about 2-3 mins.
    

    
11. Avoid over cooking ; add the cubed paneer and mixed it well. If you want to add fresh cream, you can add it now. Switch off the flame.
    

Gurnish:

Tempering 1tbs ghee add 1 whole dry chille and some cumin, spread it on the top of the dish (optional) you can also gurnish it with grated paneer it self.

Served it with roti, naan or rice.

Tips To make best palak paneer

• Choose the young and tender leaves only and discard the steam of Palak.
• If the spinach is bitter, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of fresh cream. That's totally optional.
• If you like, you can pan-fry the paneer cubes , before adding them to the curry.