Took a side trip to India via it’s cuisine. I think that that is the only way many of us are able to travel nowadays. The internet has made it so much easier for us to visit all the different countries and their various cuisines. There is also too many variations available of this simple and delectable dish.
If you have access to paneer in your local supermarkets, wonderful! It saves you a day’s work of preparations. If not, don’t fret. In this recipe, I used my homemade Paneer / Cottage Cheese and if you are not inclined to make your own, you can always substitute it with regular cottage cheese or ricotta. Try to find one that is unsalted or not too salty.
I also used the leftover Palak Paneer as a sauce on 5-minute Pizza / Flatbread Dough and this has to be my favourite!
Palak Paneer
Ingredients: 
about 2 cups of fresh spinach
1-2 green chilli (optional)
8-10 raw cashews
200g paneer (or cottage cheese or ricotta)
1 tablespoon butter or cooking oil
2 cardamon pods
1″ cinnamon stick (break the cinnamon stick to 1″ length)
2 cloves
1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 onion
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 medium sized tomato
3/4 teaspoon garam masala
3/4 cup water
Method:
- Fry the chilli (if using) in some oil. Once it starts turning colour, add the spinach & cashew nuts. Fry till the spinach is cooked. Allow to cool.
- Puree the spinach/cashew nuts/chilli with some water till it becomes a puree. It’s not essential to get it completely smooth.
- Finely chop the onion.
- Deseed & chop tomato.
- Fry the cardamons, cinnamon stick, cloves & cumin seeds till they start to pop or the smell of the spices are released.
- Add the ground ginger, garlic, onion & tomato. Fry till the tomato turns mushy.
- Add the spinach puree & water and bring to boil.
- Cut the paneer into chunks.
- When the spinach mixture has thickened or reduced, add the paneer and give a quick stir.
- Add some salt to taste.
- Serve with rice or naan.
Simply Living 