Looking for a Healthy Paneer Recipe?
This Homemade Quick and Easy Palak Paneer Recipe promises to be healthy and delicious! Let's make this winter special by choosing to have fresh spinach leaves and desi ghee. Find out how little tweaks to the traditional Palak Paneer make it an easy recipe for busy people!
Healthy Palak Paneer Recipe is a gluten-free Indian recipe that is made using fresh spinach or palak leaves (boiled and blended in a paste) with paneer added to this palak gravy. It is one of the most popular main courses of Indian cuisine made in winter.
Winters are absolutely dull without green leafy vegetables like methi, palak, saag, and bathua. My day begins with a bathua paratha almost daily in winter. Here in India, most of us are at the top of world to know when lunch or dinner has methi or makki ki roti with sarson ka saag.
This recipe of low-calorie Spinach Paneer is a gentle twist to the classic Palak Paneer recipe and is made in one pot and absolutely without any cream. The traditional recipe involves boiling spinach leaves, cooling and blending, and then tempering them with onion, garlic, and tomato. I have made little tweaks to it in order to make it quick and yet super healthy and delicious by dunking everything except paneer in the pressure cooker with spinach for boiling and later tempering with Ghee.
If you are looking for easy paneer recipes, you have landed on the right page!
Jump to:
- Why Would You Love This Recipe?
- Ingredients Overview
- How is this recipe of Palak Paneer Healthy?
- What to team Palak Paneer with?
- Is Palak Paneer Good for Dieting?
- Expert Tips
- Similar Recipe Suggestions
- Can I use Homemade Paneer?
- What is the difference between Saag Paneer and Palak Paneer?
- How to make Instant Pot Palak Paneer?
- Detailed Recipe of Healthy Palak Paneer With Steps
- Easy & Healthy Palak Paneer Recipe Without Cream| Paneer in Spinach Gravy
Why Would You Love This Recipe?
- Simple yet Elegant Spinach Recipe.
- Uses Fresh and easily available ingredients.
- Made from scratch.
- Healthy and Low Calorie Vegetarian Paneer Recipe.
- Gluten Free, Nut Free, Cream Free Recipe.
- Kids Friendly.
- Weight-Loss Friendly.
- Scalable Recipe.
- Super Quick and Easy Recipe for Beginners.
- The Best Healthy Palak Paneer Recipe Ever!
Ingredients Overview
You need fresh Spinach (Palak) leaves and if you don't have spinach locally available, feel free to use your local greens like Kale. Though I haven't tried this recipe with Kale leaves, I guess they would be a good substitute. Looking forward to my readers for sharing their experiences.
I had boiled freshly sorted and washed spinach leaves along with Onion, Garlic, Ginger, tomato, and green chilies. Once it cools off, blend it and add raw paneer along with a tempering of Red Chilly, Jeera (Cumin), Heeng in Desi Ghee!
How is this recipe of Palak Paneer Healthy?
This recipe makes no use of any cream!
I think this answers 80% of your question. We all know that Indian dishes made in restaurants are made tasty by deliberately adding extra cream or butter and however great they may taste, they are totally unhealthy. Heating Butter over and over again is not doing any good to your heart.
I have added warm Desi ghee Tadka at the last when the whole dish is ready.
I prefer to use the freshly sorted spinach leaves, not the frozen ones. It is a blend of rich nutrients like Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Vitamin A & C, and loads of loads of fiber and protein.
What to team Palak Paneer with?
You may have Homemade wheat Paratha, chapati, or rice with palak paneer.
Is Palak Paneer Good for Dieting?
To answer your query, yes choosing homemade vegetables and food over market ones is the best choice to sustain through the weight-loss journey. Busy friends have thanked me after trying this healthy recipe of Palak Paneer. You can totally control the amount of ghee that goes in the spinach gravy.
This recipe is a bundle pack of healthy nutrients and fiber-rich spinach that keeps you full for longer. [1]
Expert Tips
- Make sure to blend boiled spinach leaves (along with onion, tomato, etc.) after completely cooling off or else you might spill hot stuff over you. Once the cooker cools off, transfer the content to an open pan to let it cool soon.
- My version of spicy will not match yours. Even though this post doesn't say spicy, assume it's spicy as our appetite for spicy is more. Start with less heat and gradually add more as per your preference.
- When you add Paneer, cook for few more minutes as paneer leaves water and you need to boil that as well.
- Don't add any extra water as Spinach is full of water and you don't need any water for boiling it in a pressure cooker like other recipes. In fact, in my experience, if we add any water at this step, palak tastes really bitter.
Similar Recipe Suggestions
One may also try making Saag Paneer or Methi Paneer, Aloo Methi, Chana Dal Palak (Lentil Spinach Curry). If fresh spinach leaves are not available, one may use Kasuri Methi (dried fenugreek leaves). They taste amazing in Methi Malai Matar. I prefer using fresh leaves over frozen ones as the fresh spinach leaves take the recipe to another level.
Can I use Homemade Paneer?
Yes! You may use homemade paneer / Indian cottage Cheese. You may curdle the milk using lemon juice and sautee it on simmer for about 15 min (or more depending upon the quantity of milk). For about 1 litre of milk, you may get approx 150 gms of paneer. Since Paneer is my first love, I made Healthy Paneer Tikka for weight loss.
What is the difference between Saag Paneer and Palak Paneer?
Palak Paneer is made using spinach leaves whereas Saag can be made of Mustard green leaves also called Sarson, or bathua ( Chenopodium Album) or any winter greens mixed in a known ratio.
Like I make Sarson ka saag by using 1 kg sarson leaves, 250 gm palak leaves, and 250 bathua leaves. I think being an Indian, loving green leafy veggies comes naturally to us, and topping it with desi ghee, teaming them with chapati loaded with white butter makes it an ultimate delight that no dish could really match.
How to make Instant Pot Palak Paneer?
The procedure is almost the same as that with the pressure cooker. Add ghee, spices, onion, tomato, garlic, ginger (all roughly chopped) to the instant pot along with washed chopped spinach leaves. Set it on pressure mode for about 3-4 min. Once it beeps, cool it off, blend, and add salt and paneer. Cook for 2 min and your delicious palak paneer in the instant pot is ready.
Detailed Recipe of Healthy Palak Paneer With Steps
Step 1 Wash, Chop and Boil
Gather spinach leaves. Sort them and wash in a colander. Roughly chop them to add to a pressure cooker. In the same cooker, add washed and chopped onion, green chilly, tomato, ginger and garlic. Boil for two whistles on full flame and let it cook for 10 min on slow flame.
Step 2 Cool and Blend to Add paneer
Cool off and transfer the contents of cooker to a large pan. Let it cool and blend to smooth paste in batches.
In the same cooker, add ghee, Cumin seeds, red chilly powder, turmeric powder. Transfer the blended paste to cooker and cook for another 15 min on slow flame or till the water from spinach is absorbed.
Add paneer cubes and cook for another 3-4 min.
Step 3 Temper With Ghee and Serve It
The tempering with Ghee and Red chilly powder is optional. You may add just ghee. Top the Palak Paneer with Ghee and Enjoy it with rice or chapati!
If you make this recipe, share the image of it on our Instagram account @veg.buffet or Twitter account @vegbuffet
Easy & Healthy Palak Paneer Recipe Without Cream| Paneer in Spinach Gravy
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Colander
- Blender
Ingredients
- 800 gm Palak leaves fresh and sorted (8 -10 cups)
- 300 gm Paneer/ Indian Cottage cheese can replace with Tofu
- a pinch Heeng (Asafoetida) optional
- 1 teaspoon Jeera
- 2 small tomato
- 1 large onion
- 2-3 small green chily optional
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated/chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon haldi
- 2 teaspoon red chilly powder
- 1 teaspoon Amchur powder replace by lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Garm masala optional
- 1 tablespoon Desi Ghee
- salt as per taste
Instructions
- Sort and wash the spinach/ palak leaves under running water in a colander. This step is really important. The yellow leaves or rotten ones shall be discarded. You may feel free to roughly chop them. I skipped that step as we have to anyway blend the boiled leaves.
- Take a pressure cooker and add washed palak leaves to it. Note: Don't add any extra water as Spinach is full of water and you don't need any water for boiling it in a pressure cooker like other recipes. In fact, in my experience, if we add any water at this step, palak tastes really bitter.
- Add roughly chopped tomato, ginger, garlic, onion, and green chilly. Pressure cook it on full flame for 2 whistles and then simmer for 5 min.
- Let the pressure cool off. Once it completely cools off, transfer the boiled spinach and veggies to a blender and blend for a smooth paste. You may use a hand blender too.If you like not very smooth paste, use a hand blender. It depends on how you want it.
- The paste looks like as shown in the image. Depending upon the size of the jar, you may have to blend in 1-2 steps.
- In the same pressure cooker, I had made a desi ghee tadka to the boiled palak. You may use Kadai. Since palak splatters a lot while cooking, I prefer a utensil with height. Add desi ghee to the same pressure cooker (Note: we don't need any pressure boiling now). Add heeng and jeera
- Once jeera cracks, add haldi and red chilli powder. Make sure the flame is simmer or else spices might get burnt.
- Add blended palak paste to this tadka. Let it cook on simmer for about 10 min. It would have some moisture in it. Let it absorb that moisture.
- Then add chopped pieces of paneer. Paneer leaves the water. So cook for another 5 min and add salt, garm masala, and amchur/ lemon juice.
- The Delicious and Healthy Palak Paneer is ready. top it with my choice of Mirch ki tari and trust me you would always make palak paneer in this super-easy way. Enjoy!
Notes
- Make sure to blend boiled spinach leaves (along with onion, tomato, etc.) after completely cooling off or else you might spill hot stuff over you. Once the cooker cools off, transfer the content to an open pan to let it cool soon.
- My version of spicy will not match yours. Even though this post doesn't say spicy, assume it's spicy as our appetite for spicy is more. Start with less heat and gradually add more as per your preference.
- When you add Paneer, cook for few more minutes as paneer leaves water and you need to boil that as well.
- Don't add any extra water as Spinach is full of water and you don't need any water for boiling it in a pressure cooker like other recipes. In fact, in my experience, if we add any water at this step, palak tastes really bitter.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1 bowl | |
| Servings: 5 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 207 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 12.9g | 17% |
| Saturated Fat 1.3g | 6% |
| Cholesterol 3mg | 1% |
| Sodium 155mg | 7% |
| Total Carbohydrate 12.1g | 4% |
| Dietary Fiber 4.3g | 15% |
| Total Sugars 2.3g | |
| Protein 14.1g | |
| Vitamin D 0mcg | 0% |
| Calcium 207mg | 16% |
| Iron 5mg | 30% |
| Potassium 774mg | 16% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
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Anonymous says
I wish I could give more stars to this wonderful recipe! I had been looking for a weight-loss paneer recipe and I found yours. Could you suggest how it would taste with Tofu? I love Paneer but my hubby is trying to be vegan and I was not sure about it. Thanks
Deepti says
Thank you so much for the encouraging words. Honestly, I haven't tried this recipe with Tofu, but my guess is it would be worth trying. Let me know how it worked for you.