An Indian dish with plenty of flavour, saag paneer is a well-loved vegetarian side. It’s rich in calcium and folate from the spinach and is gluten-free too
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 450 g paneer cut into Indian restaurant sized cubes
- 500 g spinach mature fresh or frozen
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- thumb-sized piece of ginger
- 1 green chilli roughly chopped, (include seeds for extra spice)
- 1 tsp garam masala
Instructions
- Blitz the onion with the garlic, ginger and green chilli.
- If using frozen spinach, microwave for 3 mins in a sieve over a bowl. Then squeeze out most of the water into the bowl. If using fresh spinach, place in a colander, pour over boiling water, drain and cool, then put in a tea towel and squeeze out most of the water into a bowl. Roughly chop.
- Melt the ghee over a medium heat, whisk in with the turmeric and chilli powder, then add the cubed paneer. Cook for around 8 mins, tossing the pan so it becomes golden all over. Remove and set aside on a plate, leaving spices behind in the pan.
- Tip the onion mix into the pan, add a pinch of salt and turn the heat down. Fry until caramel coloured, around 10 mins, adding a splash of spinach water if it looks a little dry. Add the garam masala, stir to coat the onion mix, fry for 2 mins.
- Add the spinach and cook for a further 2-3 mins, adding 100ml of spinach water to release all the flavours from the bottom of the pan. Add the paneer and cook for 2-3 mins to heat through. Spoon into bowls to serve.
I’m struggling to cut 450g of paneer into an Indian restaurant sized cube
Any suggestions?
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