Palak Paneer | Indian Curry Recipes

Paneer based dishes are loved very much at my home. Especially curries with paneer are hands down winners against regular curries. I believe one could tell that seeing the array of paneer dishes I have in my menu. This palak paneer is delicious and is also low-fat since I have not used cream. This recipe here sure makes a big pot of the curry. I used half of the curry to go with our chapathi for dinner and Jeera rice for lunch. I froze the remaining half of the batch in a freezer-safe container for another day when I cannot get to elaborate cooking. 

Ingredients:
Serves - 4-6
Spinach - 5 cups (tightly packed)
Shallots/Pearl onions - 7
Garlic - 3 cloves
Ginger - 1/2" piece
Green chilli - 1 (optional)
Paneer - 150 g - cut into 1/2" cubes
Onion - finely chopped - 1 cup
Tomato puree - 1/2 cup (I used crushed tomatoes from a can)
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 3 tbsp (Can substitute cream or half and half)
Oil -  1 tsp + 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method:
Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wide pan and fry the shallots, ginger, garlic and green chilli. When the garlic is half cooked add the spinach leaves and saute until it wilts and shrinks. Allow to cool and blend to a puree. In the same wide non-stick pan, spray some oil and fry the paneer cubes in medium heat. This step is optional though. Heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry the onions until it turns light brown. Add the spice powders and salt. After a couple of minutes add the tomato puree and fry until it is cooked through. Add the spinach puree and water to get the desired consistency. Allow it to boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes. Finally add the paneer pieces with the milk and continue to simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with roti/naan/rice.