Check out how to make Punjabi Dhaba style best Palak paneer recipe at home with a simple step by step cooking method with video. Palak paneer is one of the most popular Indian recipes of palak (saag) cooked with paneer and a few simple Indian spices. A creamy palak puree is the base of this curry accompanied by soft juicy paneer cooked in the gravy flavoured by onion, garlic, butter, hing and kasuri methi. Paratha, roti, naan, kulcha or even rice goes well with this dish.
About Palak Paneer recipe
Palak paneer is basically a spinach cottage cheese curry, originally a North Indian Dish for Vegetarians. Palak is a Hindi term used to denote spinach, whereas paneer (also a Hindi word) means Indian cottage cheese.
People a specific complaints like due bitterness of palak, their palak paneer gets bitter in taste. I have a solution to that.
Today I will show how you can make palak paneer without bitterness –
1. Start with choosing soft palak leaves, not take their stem. Stem will increase the risk of getting bitterness.
2. Blanch it in hot water with little sugar to retain its green color along with removing its bitter taste.
3. Use of fresh cream (can use milk cream or malai found on the top of milk) reduces the bitterness of palak.
4. Here I’ve used tomato and lemon juice. Even you may use curd instead. The sourness of tomato (or curd) and lemon juice will also help together to reduce the bitterness.
Is Palak Healthy to eat?
- Though palak is rich of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. But palak contains a large amount of oxalic acid. Oxalic acid causes different health issues and only heat can break it down, and then only our body can easily absorb the other nutrients. So before cooking must blanch the palak to break down the oxalic acid.
- These days a huge amount of pesticides are used to protect leafy vegetables from insects. Only cleaning with water is not enough to remove such harmful things from the leaves. So before cooking blanching can easily remove those unwanted harmful things from the palak leaves.
Try this Punjabi dhaba style palak paneer recipe at home and let me know your valuable comment about this recipe by writing it down in the comment section below.
Even you can try some of my other veg recipes
Punjabi Dhaba style Palak Paneer recipe with video
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serve time: 40 mins
Course: Side dish
Cuisine: North Indian
Serving for: 4-5 people
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
- A bundle of Palak (Spinach)
- 300 gms Paneer
- 1/4 cup Fresh Cream
- 2 Onions(finely chopped)
- 1 Tomato(Medium)
- 8-9 pcs Garlic Cloves
- 1/2 inch Ginger
- 1 pcs Green chilli
- 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
- 1/8 tsp Hing (Asafoetida)
- 1/2 tsp Chili powder
- 1/2 Lemon juice
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1+1/2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Water
- 5 cubes Butter
- 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
How to make Punjabi Dhaba style Palak Paneer
Preparation
- First, take only palak leaves (not stems) and wash them thoroughly 4-5 times.
- Then Place a vessel on high heat with 4 cups of water and palak to it.
- Then add 1 tsp sugar, sugar helps to retain the original color of palak and also reduces the bitterness of palak.
- After 3-4 mins of blanching spinach, turn off the heat.
- Immediately strain the spinach transfer the spinach to a bowl full of water (at room temperature), and stir it well 3-4 times.
- Again transfer tthem to another bowl of normal water to completely cool them down.
- After 2 mins, lightly squeeze the leaves and straight put them into the blender with 4 pcs garlic cloves.
- Blend it well to get a smooth paste or puree.
Cooking palak paneer
- Heat the pan on medium flame with 3 cubes of butter and 3 tbsp of vegetable oil.
- When the butter completely melts down, then add 1/4 tsp cumin seeds and 2 bay leaves to the pan.
- Then add 2 medium-sized chopped onions to the pan and sauté it well for 3-4 mins.
- In the meantime, take a small blender jar with 1 medium-sized tomato(cut into cubes), 5 pcs garlic cloves, 1 pc green chili, and 1/2 inch ginger.
- Blend it well to get a smooth paste.
- After 3-4 mins, when the onion gets soft and turns into a light pink color, then add the tomato-ginger-garlic-green chili paste to it. Sauté it well.
- Then add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp garam masala powder to it and mix it well.
- Add 1/2 tsp red chili powder and sauté the masalas till the oil starts separating from it.
- Then add the palak puree and mix it nicely. Sauté it for 1 min and then add 1/8 tsp hing(asafoetida) to it. Mix it well.
- Saute the puree for 2 more mins and then add 1/4 cup or 4 tbsp fresh cream to it. Mix it nicely and cook it for 1-2 mins.
- Then add the paneer cubes(≈ 300 g) to it and mix them together.
- It is my homemade paneer even though you may use the store-bought one too.
- Saute it for 2 mins and then add 1/2 tsp sugar to it and mix it up well.
- When the moisture almost goes off, then add first add 1/4 cup(≈ 4 tbsp) of water to it.
- Let it cook till the gravy gets thick.
- Then again add 1/2 cup(≈ 8 tbsp) of water and cook it till gets a little thick or your desired consistency.
- After getting that desired thickness, add 2 cubes of butter to it.
- Then add again 1/4 tsp garam masala powder to the gravy and mix it nicely. It will retain a light flavor of garam masalas till the end.
- Lastly, squeeze 1/2 lemon or 1 tbsp lemon juice to it, stir it quickly, and turn off the heat.
- Lemon juice will enhance the taste and flavor of this dish.
- Palak paneer is ready. Serve it hot with roti, chapati, paratha, or even with plain rice, homemade jeera rice, or pulao.
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