Ula’s Palak Paneer using Coconut Milk

Today I am sharing a palak paneer recipe which was prepared by my friend Ula. Ula is my workout buddy who hails from Poland. She told me about this dish she prepared and was curious to know how she would have prepared and here is the recipe she shared. It has all the perfect Indian ingredients except for a bit of improvisation with coconut milk and cayenne pepper instead of the regular chilli powder which I am used to. Way to go Ula !! :-)

Take sometime to marinate the paneer in advance, for the perfect texture and flavor. Serve this paneer gravy over steaming hot rice or naan as desired.

I have made palak tofu recipe before. In this Palak paneer recipe, the spinach is chopped and added not pureed like the regular palak paneer.

Paneer is a mild fresh cheese that’s made by curdling milk with an acid and then pressing the curds. This is rich, creamy and savoury with a hint of tartness.

In this recipe the paneer is well marinated with the spices and fried. The onions are caramelized along with the tomatoes and toasting of the spices, then goes the spinach, coconut milk to round off the edges and ends up by adding the fried paneer pieces, which are well blended together. The result is an intensely flavorful spinach paneer curry to go with roti or rice or pulav.

Ingredients:

1. Paneer (cubed)- 250 gms
2. Palak/ Spinach- a bunch
3. Onions (chopped)- 2 nos
4. Green Chillies- 3 nos
5. Ginger (julienned)- 1 tbsp
6. Garlic(chopped)- 1 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Tomatoes- 3 nos
9. Coconut Milk- 1 cup
10. Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp
11. Cayenne Pepper Powder/ kashmiri Chilli Powder- 1 tbsp
12. Turmeric Powder- ½ tbsp
13. Oil- 3 tbsp
14. Cumin Seeds- 1 tsp

Method:

1. Chop the onions, tomatoes, green chillies and spinach. Keep these seperately aside.
2. Heat 1 tbsp Of oil in a pan. Meanwhile take the cubed paneer in a bowl and sprinkle some salt, turmeric powder and cayenne pepper powder. Mix well and shallow fry the paneer in the heated oil till light brown in colour. Keep the fried paneer on a kitchen towel.
3. In the same pan heat remaining oil, splutter cumin seeds. Add the chopped onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic.
4. Saute for a while. Add the chopped tomatoes. Mix well.
5. Stir the coconut milk in the above mixture. Add the garam masala powder. Stir till the gravy thickens.
6. Atlast add the fried paneer pieces and switch off the flame. Serve this along with hot steaming rice/ rotis/ naan.