Palak Paneer/Tofu
Palak Paneer/Tofu, bright green creamy spinach curry made with lots of fiber, delicate spices and either spiced up paneer or curried tofu
This Indian curry is cooked with lots of spinach, delicate spices and spiced up paneer or curried tofu (to make it vegan). Palak Paneer is very famous Indian Curry which is very mild in terms of spices, it is not overloaded with lots of flavors like many other curries. If you replace the paneer with tofu, this makes a perfect vegan curry. It is so flavorful and nutritious as well as gluten-free! This dish does not require long list of ingredients. If you have spinach, tofu/paneer, onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic and salt, you are golden!
One thing I am very picky about any spinach dish is it’s bright green color. It is not so appetizing to me if the spinach looses its vibrant green color after cooking. So the trick is to blench spinach by cooking in hot water then giving it an ice bath. You only need to cook spinach in boiling water for couple of minutes and then transfer it to ice water to cool down completely. That keeps the vibrant green color of spinach as is after cooking!
The recipe below shows all the ingredients and instructions for making it vegan. Use tofu instead of paneer, oil instead of butter and cashew cream instead of heavy cream. Either way I like to add some flavors/spices to paneer/tofu since the spinach gravy itself is on mind side. Serve it with any flatbreads like phulka, paratha, bhakhri, naan as well as cumin rice!
This nutrients packed flavorful dish is one of our family favorite. If you end up making it and liking it, tag me on Instagram @myvegetarianroot. I would love to see your recreation of this deliciousness!
Happy & Healthy Eating!!
Palak Paneer/Tofu
Ingredients
- 20 oz Spinach
- 1 medium Yellow Onion sliced
- 1 large 1 jalapeno (sliced) this curry is supposed to be on mind side. You can certainly make it spicy by using 1½ jalapeno instead of 1
- 5 clove Galic (sliced) 5 small cloves, use less if clove size is medium/large
- 1 inch Ginger Root (sliced)
- 6 Scallions green and white part separated
- ¼ bunch Cilantro stem and leaves separated
- 1 tsp Salt more or less based on your preference
- 1 tsp Lime Juice
- 1½ tsp Kasoori Methi
- 1½ tbsp Unsalted Butter or oil if making it vegan
- 3 tbsp Heavy Cream optional if making it vegan, can be sub with cashew cream
Curried Tofu (skip this if using paneer)
- 14 oz Firm Tofu
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 2 tsp Curry Powder if using tofu
- ¼ tsp Salt
Spiced Up Paneer (skip this if using tofu)
- 14 oz Paneer
- 1½ tbsp Unsalted Butter
- ½ tsp Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- ¼ tsp Salt
Instructions
Prepare Spiced Up Paneer (skip this if using tofu)
- Heat 1½ tbsp of butter in a wide pan. Add cubed paneer and saute on low/medium heat until golden brown.
- Add ¼ tsp salt, ½ tsp Kashmiri red chili powder, ½ tsp garam masala. Mix well. Turn the heat off and keep it aside.
Prepare Carried Tofu (skip this if using paneer)
- Take tofu out of the box and wrap it in couple of paper towels. Place a Weight on the wrapped tofu. Your weight should be heavy enough to press down evenly across the top of the tofu, but not so heavy so as to cause the tofu block to crumble.
- Mix ¼ tsp of salt, 1 tbsp of oil and 2 tsp of curry powder. Mix it all together. Add cubed tofu to the marinate and mix it very gently making sure to not break the tofu.
- Let tofu marinate for anywhere from 30 min to 6-8 hours. Even keeping it in the fridge to marinate over night is fine too if you want to prepare ahead of time! The longer it marinates, the batter it tastes!
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a flat pan and crisp up marinated tofu, flipping each cube frequently and very gently making sure you don't break it. Keep it aside in a bowl once tofu is crispy and somewhat brown.
Prepare Spinach Curry
- Boil water in a big pot with pinch of salt. Once the water is bubbling, add clean spinach and boil it for a couple of minutes, just enough for it to wilt. Do not over boil it.
- Drain the hot water out. Immediately put cooked spinach in the ice water to keep it's vibrant green color. Use fork or your fingers to wiggle it to make sure ice water goes all the way through cooked spinach lump. Once it cools down, drain all the water out and keep it aside.
- Heat 1 tbsp of butter OR oil in a pan. Saute sliced onions, jalapeños, sliced garlic and ginger, white part of green onions (chopped) and cilantro stems along with 1 tsp of salt, until onions turns translucent, do not brown them.
- Blend sauteed onions and spice mix, blenched spinach, cilantro leaves, green part of scallions in a blender. Blend it till it's smooth. Add just a little water if needed to get paste like consistency.
- Heat ½ tsp of butter in the pan that you cooked onions in earlier. Transfer blended mix to the buttered pan. Mix well.
- Rub kasoori methi between your palm to make powder (dry fenugreek leaves powder). Add that to the spinach curry and simmer it for 3-5 minutes.
- Taste it and add salt if needed. Add spiced up paneer OR crispy curried tofu to the spinach curry along with 1 tsp of lime juice. Mix it gently making sure the paneer/tofu does not break! Add more water if the curry is too thick and cook it for couple more minutes.
- Add 3 tbsp of heavy cream and mix gently. Skip this step if making it vegan, or sub heavy cream with cashew cream!
- Serve it with any flatbread or jeera/cumin rice!
