Palak Paneer (Quick recipe)

Today's Palak Paneer recipe is a very easy and quick one. I have used an immersion blender (see video), which made the process much faster. The traditional version calls for many steps ranging from blanching the spinach, adding cream etc. But this method is my version to create the same restaurant quality taste, but with lesser steps.

Ingredients:

Spinach - 225 gm (or) 1/4 kg

Paneer - 200 gm

Onion - 1 (small)

Tomato - 2 (small)

Green chili - 2

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Fennel - 1 tsp

Peanut oil - 2 Tsp + 1 Tsp

Milk - 1 cup

Salt - 1.5 Tsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Heat 2 tsp oil in a 2 liter vessel.

Suate the paneer cubes for 30 secs. (not reddish, we are just making the paneer soft by doing so).

Take it out. Keep aside.

In the same vessel, if needed add one more tsp of oil.

Put the fennel and let it get mild red color. Then add sliced onions and saute till soft.

Put the chopped tomato and chillies.

Saute till tomato is soft.

Add ginger garlic paste, cumin, salt, coriander, garam masala powders and saute for a minute.

Rinse the spinach. Drain water thoroughly and add to the vessel.

Pour 1 cup milk and cook the spinach plus masala together (3 mins).

Switch off. Let cool and grind in a blender / mixie.

If using immersion blender, no need to let cool.

Simply blend it to a coarse consistency.

Bring to a boil.

Add the fried / not fried paneer cubes.

Sprinkle kasoori methi and serve hot with roti / chapati / rice.

Serving Suggestions:

Serves 4 - 6 people.

keerai molagootal

Keerai mulakootal is a Kerala based recipe with all the goodness of dhal and greens. It can be served as a curry over rice or a great side dish with roti.

Ingredients:

spinach (pasali keerai) - 25 leaves
(or) any greens like amaranth / ponnanganni - 1 cup (chopped)
Thoor dhal (red gram) - 1/4 cup
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
urid dhal (black gram) - 1 tsp
dry red chillies - 2
cumin - 1/4 tsp
salt - to taste
coconut oil - 1 tsp
mustard - 1/4 tsp
shallot (chopped) - 1 tbsp (optional)
curry leaf - few

Method:

Wash and clean the dhal and keerai separately. Chop the greens finely.

Cook the dhal with 1 cup water, turmeric - a pinch and asafoetida - a pinch. Pressure cooking the dhal is more convenient. We can cook the dhal in advance and freeze for future use too. This saves a lot of time.

Fry the urid dhal , red chillies and cumin in a drop of oil. Grind them coarsely along with coconut to a fine paste.

Now pour the excess water from cooked dhal and cook the spinach. Mash the greens coarsely. Add the masala paste, mashed dhal to the cooked greens and put salt to taste.

Heat the coconut oil in the pan, add the mustard and let it crackle. Slightly fry the onion, curry leaves and run it over the greens. Mix well.

Switch off as it comes to a boil.

Keerai mulagootal is ready!

Serving suggestions:

The above said quantity is for 2 people.
Serve as curry over rice. Paruppu thogayal (dhal chutney) and fried appalam are the traditional side dishes for this.
Another way is to serve as side dish with rasam+rice.
Pairs well with roti also.