Palak Paneer
‘Palak’ is Indian spinach and this curry is best made with dark thick-leaved spinach or perpetual spinach. In supermarkets you can buy ‘cooking’ spinach which has more flavour than baby spinach leaves, which shrink to very little when cooked.
SERVES 4
PREP 15 mins
COOK 30 mins
Ingredients:
✔ 450g spinach, washed and stems removed
✔ 2 cloves garlic, crushed
✔ 5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled
✔ 2 green chillies, chopped
✔ 2 tbsp sunflower oil
✔ 1 onion, sliced
✔ 1 tsp ground coriander
✔ 1 tsp ground cumin
✔ 100g cherry tomatoes, halved
✔ ½ tsp garam masala
✔ ¼ tsp turmeric
✔ 250g paneer, cubed (shop bought or homemade: see recipe, opposite)
✔ lemon juice, to taste
✔ salt, to taste
Directions:
1. Wilt the spinach in a large saucepan and drain through a sieve, keeping the liquid to add to the curry later (see page 26).
2. Blend the garlic, ginger and chillies in a mini processor, or chop very finely.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the sunflower oil and fry the onion until beginning to caramelise. Add the ground coriander and cumin with the garlic, ginger and green chilli mix and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Mix in the wilted spinach.
4. Heat 1 teaspoon of the sunflower oil in a frying pan and gently cook the cherry tomatoes with the garam masala, until the tomatoes are beginning to colour. Set aside.
5. Wipe out the frying pan and add the rest of the sunflower oil with the turmeric and heat gently. Add the cubed paneer, then gently fry on all sides until golden.
6. Heat the spinach mix with about 100ml of the leftover spinach water. Season to taste with lemon juice and salt. Add in the fried tomatoes and the paneer, and heat through. Serve with kulcha leavened Indian flatbreads, chapattis or parathas.
Cook’s Tip
You can buy paneer from Indian stores and some supermarkets. Shop-bought paneer has a bland taste and is more rubbery-textured than homemade; it must always be cooked before eating.
[info title="Nutritions" icon="info-circle"]Per Serving 315 cals, fat 22.2g, sat fat 10.4g, carbs 7.5g, sugars 5.3g, protein 20.9g, salt 1.4g, fibre 4.4g[/info]
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