restaurant style palak paneer recipe | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry
by Tarla Dalal
Added to 310 cookbooks
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restaurant style palak paneer recipe | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry | with 34 amazing images.
Palak Paneer, an evergreen delicacy from North India, is perhaps one of the most interesting ways to include spinach in your meal.
restaurant style palak paneer features in many Indian restaurant menus, as it goes well with most Indian breads like Tandoori Naan or Roti.
The highlight of this restaurant style palak paneer recipe is the flavour-packed palak gravy, which works effectively not just with paneer but also with potatoes or koftas. Also restaurant style palak paneer tends to use a lot more cream than homemade palak paneer.
You can make a variant of this restaurant style palak paneer recipe with garlic (Lehsuni Paneer Palak Subzi) if you want a peppier flavour.
To make the restaurant style palak paneer recipe, blanch the spinach in a vessel full of boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, refresh with cold water. Blend in a mixer to a smooth purée and keep aside. Heat the oil and butter in a kadhai , add the ginger, garlic and tomatoes and sauté on a medium flame for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the prepared onion-cashew and cook on a medium flame for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the spinach purée, ¾ cup of water, salt and cook on a medium flame for 1 minute. Add the dried fenugreek leaves, punjabi garam masala, sugar and cook on a medium flame for 3 minutes. Add the paneer cubes and cream and cook on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes. Serve the restaurant style palak paneer hot.
See why we think this is a healthy palak paneer sabzi. Spinach is loaded with iron and fibre, while paneer is rich in protein. This makes it a nice recipe to include in your everyday cookbook. If you are on weight loss, then cut the cream and use low fat paneer in the recipe.
You can cook an array of dishes with this palak paneer recipe, such as the Palak Paneer Toast, Palak-Paneer-Roti and Palak Paneer Rice.
You can even stuff cottage cheese and spinach curry into crisp, golden dosa to make Palak Paneer Dosa one of Mumbai’s favourite street foods. With so many options at hand, there is no excuse to not include palak frequently in your diet!
Enjoy how to make restaurant style palak paneer recipe | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry | with detailed step by step photos below.
For the onion-cashew paste- Combine all the ingredients with 1 cup of water and simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Cool and blend to a smooth paste. Keep aside.
How to proceed- To make the restaurant style palak paneer recipe, blanch the spinach in a vesselful of boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Drain, refresh with cold water and keep aside to cool for some time.
- Blend in a mixer to a smooth purée and keep aside.
- Heat the oil and butter in a kadhai , add the ginger, garlic and tomatoes and sauté on a medium flame for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the prepared onion-cashew and cook on a medium flame for 3 to 4 minutes
- Add the spinach purée, ¾ cup of water, salt and cook on a medium flame for 1 minute.
- Add the dried fenugreek leaves, punjabi garam masala, sugar and cook on a medium flame for 3 minutes.
- Add the paneer cubes and cream and cook on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes
- Serve the restaurant style palak paneer hot.
Restaurant Style Palak Paneer, Healthy Palak Paneer recipe with step by step photos
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For the onion-cashew paste for restaurant style palak paneer recipe | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry | take a pan and fill it up with about 1 cup of water.
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Now add the sliced onions.
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Add the green chillies to spice it up.
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Finally add the cashew nuts.
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Simmer on a low flame for about 15 minutes or till the cashew nuts become soft.
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Cool slightly and transfer into a small mixer jar.
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Blend to a smooth paste. Keep aside.
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For the spinach puree of restaurant style palak paneer | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry | wash the spinach with clean water to get rid of dirt if any.
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Roughly chop the spinach to make the cooking process faster.
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To make spinach puree for Restaurant Style Palak Paneer, take a vesselful of water and put it for boiling.
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Now add the spinach leaves. Cook the spinach leaves in the water for 2-3 minutes till they are tender. Do not overcook the leaves as they might lose color.
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Remove from flame and drain.
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Refresh it with cold water. This stops the internal cooking process which in turn helps maintain a bright green colour.
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Squeeze out all the excess water.
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Cool it down slightly and transfer into a small mixer jar.
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Blend to a smooth purée. Keep aside.
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To make the Restaurant Style palak paneer gravy, take a kadhai and heat the oil and butter in it. Oil and butter are added together so that the butter doesn't get burnt.
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Now add the ginger.
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Add the garlic. Both ginger and garlic will provide the desired amount of piquancy to your Palak Paneer gravy.
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Add the tomatoes to add bulk to your gravy. Ensure they are chopped up finely so that they get cooked effortlessly.
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Sauté on a medium flame for about 1-2 minutes or till the mixture releases oil.
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Now add the onion-cashew paste and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
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Add the spinach purée into your kadhai.
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Add the salt to taste.
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Also, add 3/4 cup of water. If you want it more liquidy then add more water to adjust the gravy consistency to suit your personal preference.
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Mix well and cook on a medium flame for 1 minute.
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Now add the dried fenugreek leaves. Always crush the fenugreek leaves before you add them so that they release their flavor and incorporate well.
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Add punjabi garam masala to load your Restaurant Style Palak Paneer with flavors.
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Now add sugar to balance the bitterness of the spinach leaves.
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Mix well and cook on a medium flame for 3 minutes and our Palak paneer gravy is now ready.
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Add the paneer cubes. You can soak the paneer in hot water for 5-10 minutes before you add them to your Palak Paneer if you find them tough. This will make the paneer softer. You can also shallow fry the paneer if you want your paneer to be crusty.
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Add the cream in the end so that Restaurant Style Palak Paneer doesn’t get curdled. The cream to be added should either be at room temperature or should be warm.
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Mix restaurant style palak paneer | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry | well and cook on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes.
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Serve the restaurant style palak paneer | healthy palak paneer | cottage cheese and spinach curry | hot with rotis, parathas or naans.
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If you like palak paneer, then try check our collection of paneer recipes and check our popular paneer recipes below.
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Palak paneer is rich in below macronutrients, vitamins and minerals given in descending order (highest to lowest).
- Vitamin A rich recipes, Beta Carotene : Vitamin A is crucial for healthy vision, cell growth and healthy skin. Sources of vitamin A include yellow-orange fruits and vegetables like carrots, mango, papaya, peach, tomatoes, pumpkin etc. and other vegetables like spinach, kale, fenugreek leaves, broccoli, capsicum etc. 166% of RDA.
- Folic Acid (Vitamin B9): Folic acid is an essential vitamin required throughout pregnancy. Folic acid rich Indian foods (kabuli chana, chana dal, yellow moong dal, urad dal, tooval dal, til ) 93% of RDA.
- Calcium. See Calcium rich recipes : Calcium is a mineral that makes bones stay strong. Required from kids to adults. 67% of RDA.
- Magnesium : Magnesium is required for formation of bones and teeth. It helps in the metabolism of calcium and potassium. % of RDA. magnesium rich Indian foods like leafy vegetables (palak, broccoli, kale), pulses ( rajma, chawli, moong ), nuts (walnuts, almonds) , cereals ( jowar, bajra, whole wheat flour, dalia). 44% of RDA.
- Phosphorus : Phosphorus works closely with calcium to build bones. 41% of RDA.
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) : Vitamin B2 enables the production of red blood cells that contribute to the rise in your energy levels. So have more milk, curds, eggs and green leafy vegetables. 36% of RDA.
- Protein : Protein is required for managing the wear and tear of all cells of the body. Have protein rich Indian foods like paneer, curd, Greek yoghurt, tofu, almonds, sprouts, chana, rajma, chick peas, quinoa, buckwheat ). 24% of RDA.
- Iron : Iron is essential in the chemical reactions that produce energy from foods. Eat more greens and garden cress seeds to prevent you from being anaemic. Here are the top 7 sources of iron rich foods. 23% of RDA.
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) : Vitamin B1 protects nerves, helps in carbohydrate metabolism, prevents heart diseases and helps produce red blood cells. 20% of RDA.
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Accompaniments
Nutrient values (Abbrv) per serving
| Energy | 374 cal |
| Protein | 13.3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 16.4 g |
| Fiber | 4.2 g |
| Fat | 28.4 g |
| Cholesterol | 2.5 mg |
| Sodium | 98.6 mg |
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