Palak Paneer – Indian Spinach Curry with Cheese

Palak Paneer is the ultimate and best-known Indian spinach curry, made with golden pan-fried pieces of cheese (paneer). For a recipe this special, I can’t endorse shortcuts. This version is made entirely from scratch – including the paneer cheese!

And … while we’re at it, welcome to Indian Week here at RecipeTin Eats!!

🌶 Welcome to Indian week!! 🌶

Palak Paneer is a recipe I’ve been busting to nail for years now. I’m thrilled it’s finally ready to share with you. So to celebrate, I’ve decided to declare this week as Indian week!

This week there will be three brand new, iconic Indian recipes to make your very own Indian feast:

1. Palak Paneer – This recipe, including homemade paneer (the cheese!)

2. Naan – Finally, finally, finally! FIVE YEARS in the making!

3. Samosas – Oh yes we did … and it’s AMAZING!!!

Plus a colourful side salad – a Cabbage & Carrot Thoran-style Salad!

Note the extreme and excessive use of exclamation marks here … a small indicator of the level of excitement and work that has gone into these recipes. I hope you enjoy them!

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Palak Paneer

While there are many curries across the Indian subcontinent made with spinach, none are probably as well-known across the world as Palak Paneer – a dish of chunks of a fresh cottage cheese, called paneer, swimming in a lush sauce made with fresh spinach. The spinach gives the sauce a naturally thick and creamy consistency, and palak paneer’s signature deep, jungle-green hue.

This is one of the milder Indian curries out there, both in heat and spice intensity. The gentle spicing from fenugreek, cumin and coriander plays well with the delicate spinach flavour, without overwhelming it. Meanwhile, the paneer are like little creamy sponges that suck up all those tasty flavours in the sauce!

Admittedly, I used to think palak paneer was kind of boring – until I realised I’d never really had a great one. This curry is anything but dull when done right. It’s unique among curries with its creamy green sauce. It’s full of nourishing goodness and is packed with layers of flavour. And it’s completely vegetarian to boot.

This is a curry that can honestly please just about everyone. Whether it’s kids or card-carrying carnivores, I challenge you to find someone who’ll turn their nose up to palak paneer when it’s this good!

What you need for Palak Paneer

The two components of Palak Paneer are:

1. Paneer – The fresh Indian cheese – we’re making it from scratch (it’s easy!); and

2. Spinach Curry Sauce – Made with fresh spinach. LOTS of it!!!

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1. Paneer – Fresh Indian Cheese

These days, you can buy it – but I implore you, don’t! While homemade paneer does take a bit of time to make, it’s simple. It’s just milk and lemon, and you don’t need any special equipment. Most importantly, it is far superior to store-bought paneer.

Store-bought paneer is hard and dry and kind of spongey. It’s more like bad feta in texture than what paneer should be. Homemade Paneer on the other hand is soft and creamy, and true delight to eat!

This is all you need to make homemade Paneer: just milk and lemon juice or vinegar.

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I’ve posted the recipe for How to Make Paneer separately for ease of reading.

As well as better results, you will get an enormous sense of satisfaction from making your own cheese!

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2. Spinach Curry (Palak)

Here’s what you need for the Spinach Curry:

PLUS, of course, SPINACH!!

You need a LOT of spinach to make Spinach Curry. Like seriously, A LOT. As in five BIG bunches to yield 700g/1.4lb of leaves in total. Yes.

You will need to pick the leaves, wash and dry them, then chop them.

I’m not going to lie – I was over this job by the 5th (6th? 7th?) batch of palak paneer.

And I know, I know. The first thing you’re wondering is easier alternatives. Frozen spinach? Bags of pre washed baby spinach? I tried ’em all. It’s not the same, believe me – more on this below!

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Easier spinach options – but why they also fall short

I was never going to publish Palak Paneer without trying out more convenient spinach alternatives! Here’s what I found:

• Baby spinach – Handy dandy, wouldn’t it be, if we could just use big bags of pre-washed baby spinach? Regretfully, the result was barely passable. Baby spinach is just too delicate, so you just don’t end up with any texture in the sauce at all. It also has very little spinach flavour. We ended up looking at what appeared like a pot of green smoothie. It was just sad – and barely edible….

• Frozen spinach – This works, but you end up with about 1/3 of the final curry quantity! It also has a diluting effect on flavours which you need to account for.

  To achieve the same flavour as per written recipe, use 250g/8oz frozen spinach in place of 700g/1.4lb of fresh spinach leaves. Add thawed frozen spinach in place of fresh spinach, including the excess water leeched by the thawed spinach, and only cook for 3 minutes. Proceed with recipe.

  Essentially, frozen spinach is 3 times more densely packed than cooked down fresh spinach which is why you end up with so much less. Also, the sauce will be thicker and paler, and the spinach flavour is not quite as pronounced. But it’s still very tasty – you just wind up with a LOT less!!

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How to make Palak Paneer

The steps below depict the steps for making the Palak Paneer. See the process steps in the separate Paneer recipe for how to make the homemade cheese.

1. Paneer (homemade Indian fresh cheese) – Firstly, make the Paneer. We need one batch per the paneer recipe here, which includes process steps and recipe video. It calls for 4 hours of setting in the fridge, so you will need to factor this in. It can be made up to 2 weeks ahead;

2. Onion and spices – The curry starts by sautéing onion with the spices, to coax the flavours from the spices. A large pot is the best cooking vessel – you’ll thank me when you get to the spinach part! The onion should be cooked until soft but not golden;

3. Garlic, ginger and tomato – Next we cook off the garlic and ginger. It will already be smelling amazing, now take it to another level!! Next, tomato. This essentially deglazes the pot (ie. loosens the tasty golden flavours stuck to the base of the pot) and adds a little body;

4. Wilt spinach – Then we add the spinach and cook it until wilted. You’ll need to add the spinach in 3 batches. That is: Add, wilt. Add, wilt. And so on, until all the spinach is in. Continue to cook it for 10 minutes more to soften;

5. Cream and lemon juice are then added and cooked for 3 minutes. The cream adds a touch of richness, but not too much. Meanwhile the lemon brings a touch of welcome freshness and some backbone tang;

6. Blitz half – Remove half the spinach mixture, puree using a stick blender and return into the pot. I like to puree just half so as to retain some texture in the sauce. You will find some recipes, and even some restaurants, puree the sauce completely. I personally don’t enjoy that texture – it’s too much like a smoothie! Having some spinach texture in the sauce is so much more pleasant and interesting;

7. Stir in pureed spinach – The sauce should be quite thick now;

8. Pan-fry paneer – Pan-fry the paneer in ghee or butter until golden. Colour = flavour, and paneer is no exception to this rule! The added bonus is that the paneer holds together better once pan-fried so you don’t need to handle it as delicately when stirred into the curry;

9. Add golden paneer into the Spinach Curry; then

10. Gently stir – and you’re done! Note the sauce is deliberately quite thick, it’s not as loose as other curries like Butter Chicken. But nor should it be so thick that it’s like a paste. If it’s too thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time to loosen it up, taking care not to dilute the flavour.

Serve with Basmati Rice, or add a side of fluffy, bubbly and buttery naan which is coming your way on Wednesday. Though if you’re out of yeast / don’t have rising time, whip up a quick batch of Easy No Yeast Flatbreads, which is my handy backup to real naan!

As a general note, in case you are wondering (because I was!), Palak Paneer is more spinach curry and less paneer. I always had it in my head that there was loads more Paneer in it, but actually, there isn’t heaps. I realise now that it’d be too much of a good thing if there was any more paneer, and this way the sauce really shines as the the other star of the show as much as the paneer.

If you do want more cheese – and I really don’t blame you – just scale up the Paneer recipe. It’s no more effort to make more!

Serve with …

Just to restate, it’s Indian Week here on RecipeTin Eats!! This week I’m sharing a series of brand new Indian recipes so you can make your very own Indian feast.

This Wednesday, I’ll be sending you it’s the most magical naan recipe of your life – fluffy and chewy and bubbly, as it should be plus an incredible Indian Thoran-Style Cabbage Salad I’ve been eating obsessively all week.

And on Friday, we have SAMOSAS!!! I’m so thrilled about this one. These little babies are completely irresistible!

I hope you enjoy this week’s recipe bounty as much as I have creating, photographing and filming them!! All the washing up involved on the other hand – not so much … 😂 – Nagi x

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Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

Wishing he was down there instead of up here…. (PS Is it just me or does his rump look rather large?? He’ll blame the camera. I’ll blame the Carrot Cake Cupcakes).