Palak paneer is one of the most wholesome and comforting dishes that I grew up eating. It’s one of the most popular paneer recipes made with spinach, paneer (Indian cottage cheese) and spices. I love eating my palak paneer with warm soft rotis, but it also pairs great with soft, pillowy garlic naan or jeera rice with a side of boondi raita. This is a simple homemade palak paneer, a version that my mom made often to make us all eat spinach!
Palak means spinach in Hindi and paneer is Indian cottage cheese, together they come together in this lush green curry that we all love. This recipe is very simple, and I would call it home style palak paneer recipe.
Palak Paneer is NOT Saag Paneer
People sometimes confuse the two together, but they are different. Saag refers to mixed greens so in saag paneer, mustard greens, spinach and few other greens are often used whereas palak is spinach (in Hindi) and so palak paneer is made only with spinach.
My version of simple Palak Paneer!
Everyone has their own way of making this dish. I started making it the way my mom used to make but over the years, I adapted it to my own style with more garlic and less spices. I don’t like overpowering my palak paneer with spices, this is a simple homestyle palak paneer that I make using simple ingredients and basic spices.
The curry is made of spinach puree, tomato, onion, ginger and garlic. I use lot of garlic because in my opinion spinach and garlic go well together. However, if you are not a fan, you may cut down on it or skip it altogether.
I often use my homemade paneer for this palak paneer recipe because homemade paneer is the softest paneer and works wonderfully well in this recipe.
Since spinach is little bitter, I also use some cream and sugar to cut the bitterness. Recently, I have started adding a few raw cashews to the spinach puree while grinding it- not many just 3 to 4 and the result in an even creamier palak paneer!
Here are some of my simple tips which make a big impact on the final dish!
- Use ice cold water to retain the bright green spinach color: after the spinach is blenched, transfer it immediately to ice cold water. This helps in retaining the color of the spinach.
- Pinch of baking soda also does the trick! You can also add a pinch of baking soda to the spinach puree while it’s cooking to retain the bright green spinach color.
- If you use store bought paneer to make this recipe, remember to soak it in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes and then use it in the recipe. The store-bought paneer will be soft then.
My husband will lick the plate clean when I make this palak paneer and it’s on repeat in my house throughout the year. Hope you enjoy!
Using frozen spinach
If you are using frozen spinach for this recipe, thaw the spinach according to instructions on the package, then squeeze out the extra water and then use it in the recipe. I would be careful about the amount of water when using frozen spinach. Start with less water than what’s mentioned in the recipe and then add water as and if needed.
Step by step instructions to make Palak Paneer
- Blanch the spinach first
It’s important to transfer the spinach leaves into cold water immediately, this helps in retaining the bright green color of the spinach.
- Then make a bright green spinach puree
Once the spinach leaves are blanched, puree them in a blender along with tomatoes, ginger, garlic and chilies into a green puree. You can also add 3 raw cashews at this point while making the puree (optional). If using cashews, soak them in hot water for 5-10 minutes before using.
- Double down on the garlic
I like using garlic twice in this recipe- first while blending the spinach leaves and then while cooking the gravy. Sauté the garlic and onions until soft and then add the prepared spinach puree into the pan.
- Spices go in next!
I like adding a few powdered spices to my palak paneer, adding sugar is optional but I recommend it. Touch of heavy cream helps in balancing the slightly bitter flavor of spinach.
- Add paneer at the end
Some people do pan fry their paneer, but I just end it at the end and then let the curry simmer for 2-3 minutes. I also squeeze some lemon juice at the end- it gives the palak paneer that bright, fresh flavor also the citrus also helps in absorbing the iron from the spinach when you eat it.
Vegan Palak Paneer
To make, this recipe vegan, use tofu (extra-firm please) in place of paneer and coconut cream or oat milk in place of heavy cream. Here’s a vegan version of palak paneer that I made several years ago from the archives.
Make Ahead Option
You can make this recipe in advance up to 2 days if you want to. Keep it refrigerated. And when it’s time to serve, heat it up well. You may need to add some water or milk to thin out the curry while re-heating since the spinach really thickens as it cools down.
Palak Paneer Recipe (From Scratch)
Ingredients
- 350 grams spinach
- 1 medium tomato
- 5 large garlic cloves, divided, 3 whole and 2 finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 green chili, or more to taste
- 3 whole cashews, optional, raw, unsalted, soaked for 5 minutes in hot water
- 1 & ½ tablespoon oil, I used avocado oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- ½ cup water, or as needed
- ¾-1 teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder, or to taste
- ¾ teaspoon salt, adjust to taste
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream, or adjust to taste
- 225 grams paneer, cut into cubes
- ½ tablespoon kasuri methi, crushed, dried fenugreek leaves
- lemon juice, to taste
Instructions
- To a pot of boiling water, add a little salt and then add 350 grams spinach leaves to it. Blanch the spinach leaves for 2 to 3 minutes until wilted. Take them out using a slotted spatula and put them in ice cold water. This helps the leaves in retaining their green color.
- Now, to a blender, add the blanched spinach (drain them before adding) along with 1 medium tomato, 3 garlic cloves, 1-inch ginger and 1 green chili. Puree to a smooth paste and set aside. Optional: you may add 3 raw cashews (unsalted) to this puree as well. Soak the cashews in hot water for 5 minutes before using in the recipe. This results in a creamier palak paneer.
- Heat a wide heavy bottom pan on medium heat. Once hot, add 1& ½ tablespoon oil and then add the remaining 2 garlic cloves (chopped). Sauté for a few minutes until it starts changing color.
- Then add 1 large onion (chopped). Cook the onion for 2 to 3 minutes until soft and translucent.
- Stir in the prepared spinach puree next and mix well. Also add around ½ cup water at this point. TIP: add a pinch of baking soda at this stage to retain the green spinach color in the curry. Cover the pan and let the gravy for 10 minutes on medium heat. The spinach will bubble a lot. Stir at regular intervals to avoid sticking at the bottom.
- Once the spinach is cooked, add ¾ teaspoon garam masala, ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder and ¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste). Mix and cook for 1 minute. You may also add ½ teaspoon of sugar at this point, optional but recommended.
- Then add 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream and mix. Stir in 225 grams paneer (cut into cubes) and mix. Let the curry simmer for 3 minutes on medium-low heat.
- Turn off the flame, and add ½ tablespoon kasuri methi and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (you can add mor or less depending on taste).
Video
Notes
- If you like, you can pan-fry the paneer cubes (until golden brown) before adding them to the curry. Fry them in 1-2 teaspoons of oil until light golden brown in color and then use in the recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I just wanted to thank you for your fantastic website and recipes. I discovered you when the pandemic started and have had the best time making your recipes and expanding my cooking repertoire. Your food has been one of the “good things” to have come out of the pandemic for me!
cheers,
will
Thank you Will, thanks for following along 🙂
I love using this recipe it’s so easy, not many ingredients needed and tastes delicious! Thank you!
I am glad to know 🙂
Delicious! My daughter’s favorite!
Hi Manali! Hope you’re safe and sound in these difficult times. Just wanted you to know that I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve used this particular recipe. Also, whenever I want to make something Indian, I type the name of the dish followed by your name. Never been let down by any of your recipes! Thank you so much!
Thank you Anupama, so glad you like it 🙂
Five stars for this gem of a recipe. Thank you for sharing. It’s delicious and simple!
Excellent!I followed your recipe Manali and it turned out good.Thanks very much.Yours is the recipe I will repeat.
I tried ur recipe during last year lockdown and it turned out great. So I have been repeating the same. It is easy to follow and yummy to eat. Thank u Manali for sharing ❤️❤️❤️
It came out amazing… Thanks for this Manali. Might I put a note here to boil the paneer cubes for a while before adding it in the gravy. That way the paneer is really soft and melts in your mouth as you eat.
yes I always do that 🙂 will add to the tip!
Amazing! I made homemade paneer that morning for the first time and wanted to use it in something worthy. I added nuts and sultanas and a tiny bit more sugar for a sweeter curry and it tied together beautifully.
I’m not ordinarily one to leave reviews on recipe pages. But this is truly excellent. Spot on restaurant quality flavour and texture. I’ve made this four times already, and coming back to it for a fourth time this evening.
glad to hear that Jisha!
Hi. I tried it out today and it is delicious! Thanks so much 🙂
welcome 🙂
My family loved this !! I overdid the garlic cos my cloves for huge , but the heavy cream mellowed it down. Thank so much !! I i used 2 pounds spinach and 400 GPM paneer as that’s the size they came in. Double the Garam masala and left rest of the spices same . Was yummy !! Thank you !
Both me and my husband always come back to your site for tried and tested recipes. Palak paneer is one of them. Your recipe turns out always to be yummy.
Thanks Vani, I am glad to hear that!
Can you make ahead and freeze this for later?
you may, I would skip the dairy. add that later.
Used a package of frozen spinach – absolutely delicious!
How much frozen spinach would you use instead of fresh? I tried to look up conversions frozen to fresh spinach quantities and it’s all americans talking about ounces and ‘cups’ and I have no idea!
same amount
Just made it for dinner. Super simple to do and super good. Mixing the spinach into a paste makes the dish so smooth and comforting to eat. Highly recommend.
Thank you for sharing Manali!
What does 350 grams of spinach translate to in ounces? I have an 8 oz bag of spinach. Is that enough?
8 oz is 227 grams spinach (I just checked online) so you would need a little more
I never leave comments on recipes, but today I had to. This really turned out magnificently. I have basic cooking skills, but nothing exceptional. My wife said this was the best thing I ever made. I guess that really says it all. Thank you for excellent guidance. I used a little extra spinach and a little extra cream and about 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. 1 teaspoon of salt. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.
awesome! glad you enjoyed it!
I’m making the the recipe and wondering at what stage of cooking I should add the sugar? Thank you!
it’s clearly mentioned in the instructions (step 7 in recipe card)- “Once the spinach is cooked, add the garam masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Mix and cook for 1 minute.
You may also add ½ teaspoon of sugar at this point if you like.”
Sounds good and delicious.
I have tried so many of your recipes and always i got good results so I will try definitely this one also.
Thanks
This is my go to page whenever it’s Palak Panner time!
Easy, simple and quick and tastes awesome. Thank you.
Wow… It was superb. It was our first trial at this dish at home. Of course we could not get original indian palak where we live. So the palak was substituted with local spinach. Thank you Manali. All our best to you.
Followed this recipe to a tea. Used 3/4 an inch of ginger vs 1 inch and it still turned out to taste like a bland ginger paste. I do think it would be better if it slow cooked all day because the onions are pronounced. It tasted nothing like any Palek Paneer I’ve ever had and Indian food is my favorite and I’ve eaten it in 10+ countries. Tried this recipe particular recipe because of the great reviews and just have no words for what turned out.
Sorry you didn’t like it, everyone has a different taste bud but majority seem to love it so I will take it :). Also you claim to have eaten palak paneer in 10 countries and I am an Indian born and brought up in India and grew up eating homemade palak paneer and I can very much say it tasted like this :). Thanks for trying!
It was amazing. Everyone in the family loved it.
Forgot to rate!
Hi Manali!
The recipe turned out pretty well and I love the no bs pics that come with the recipe!
maybe a dumb question: is it 234 cal for the whole dish or per serving? Was curious.
per serving, it’s calculated automatically by a plugin wherein it divides the total calories by the number of servings I enter in the recipe card. It’s a rough estimate.
It’s amazing. While we lived in India we loved it so much. Now when I made it myself, ..such a nostalgy. Thank you, sister!?
you are welcome!
Turning out too delicious! Thanks for sharing with such details ?
The comment section doesn’t have the option to add a picture otherwise would have ?
Turned out great! Thank you Manali ☺️
this was restaurant quality delicious. thank you for sharing!
so glad!
We loved this palak paneer recipe and has become a go-to at our house. Blitzing everything in the blender makes it so much more easier.
Sounds good and delicious, I am going to try.
My mom absolutely loved the palak paneer I cooked using this recipe
awesome!
I tried this recipe &came out very nicely.simply superb.Thanks .
really easy and sooooo delicious! Thank you
Love the recipe! It came out so good, was my first time making this
❤️?
Great recipe! I avoid dairy, so used coconut cream instead of cream and tofu instead of paneer. Turned out great! Thanks
Making this for the second time in a few weeks. It turned out SOOOO well. My daughter is requesting that I make it for her so she can have something soft to eat after getting her wisdom teeth out tomorrow. I’ll be taking her a care package of a big batch of this. I’ll be checking out your other recipes for some more inspiration too.
Made this, only thing I was missing was Fenugreek, it was really good, the spice blend was slightly different than I am used to, but that may have been the lack of fenugreek. Overall it was very enjoyable, but I might have to tinker with the spices a bit to match what I’m used to.
Thank u so much for sharing this yummy recipe wid us. Rating it 5 stars coz it came out to be really delicious.
I have been trying for around 3 years and comes of perfect and yummy. It’s my families favourite. I have tried other palak paneer recipes too but your is easy and tasty. Thanks
This is a great recipe! I’ve used it loads of times and it turns out great every time. I’m very impressed that this enabled me to make something that actually tastes authentic. Thanks a lot!
Thank you for the great recipes. Can you use frozen spinach? How much?
same amount should work!
Substitute of heavy cream???
milk, cashew cream
This was my first time making palak paneer. wowwww, this is so simple and amazingly delicious. This recipe will definitely be added to my recipe book. Thank you so much
Thank you for this recipe! It was great and will definitely make it again. In fact next time, I plan to try making my own paneer and low carb naan to go with!
it was so so soo good!
Only thing I altered was I fried the paneer cubes. And while boiling palak I also added jeera, which was mostly removed, except for a few while grinding the spinach.
otherwise I followed the recipe to the the T.
Mind-blown.
very well deserved 5 stars, as this was the first time I ever cooked palak paneer in my life 🙂
Thanks Aastha, I am glad you enjoyed it!
Loved it!
And I just discovered your page.
The recepies are wonderful Manali. I am so glad this exists. I am going to go on a cooking frenzy 🙂
This recipe calls for 350 grams spinach with stem or 350 grams spinach leaves? Sorry for asking such a stupid question ?
spinach leaves, but those tender stems should be okay too
Super tasty .. Everyone in the family loved it
Fantastic! I’m not a vegetarian or a big fan of paneer, so I use this to make palak chicken–which I’ve loved for years when I go to Indian restaurants. I am delighted that I can use this recipe and come up with something that tastes like food from an Indian restaurant—or maybe an Indian home, even better–though I have not had Indian home cooking. Thank you!!!
Very tasty…super recipe…Every one at home loved it