Thomas’ Palak Paneer

Before marrying Thomas, I had never tried Indian food. Or honestly even Thai and Vietnamese which are all staple in our lives now. It took me some trial and error to figure out what dishes I liked at the restaurant and I ALWAYS came back to this one. Thomas gets it every time and I’d usually end up being jealous of his meal even though mine was still super good. Long story short, this has become my FAVORITE Indian dish. Thomas figured out how to make it at home & it’s our fourth time making it in about 4 weeks. I honestly crave it, and I personally think his recipe is better than takeout! Plus, it saves us money and T even loves it too! Win win!

Ingredients:

-3 16oz boxes fresh spinach

-1 cup petite canned diced tomatoes

-1/3 cup canned coconut milk

-1 yellow onion, diced

-2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled & sliced into thin strips

-1.5 tbsp garlic, chopped

-2 tsp sea salt

-1.5 tsp curry powder

-1 tsp black pepper

-1 tsp cumin

-1 tsp cumin seeds

-1 tsp garam masala

-1 tsp turmeric

-1 tsp red pepper flakes

-8 oz paneer cheese, cubed

Directions:

To start, prepare all your ingredients. Heat a large stockpot, and once heated, add in olive oil, 1 bay leaf, and 1 tsp cumin seeds. Toast the cumin seeds for about 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add in diced onion and stir until cooks down for a few minutes. Then, add in ginger and garlic and stir. Let cook down for about 4-5 minutes. Next, add in the remaining spices including the salt and pepper. Then add in diced tomatoes and coconut milk and stir for a few minutes. Let everything marinate together. Lastly, add in the spinach and stir until it’s all cooked down. You can chop the spinach before to help it blend better and cook faster.

Using an immersion blender or blender, blend until all the spinach is pureed. It’s okay if there are still some pieces of spinach not perfectly blended. It can be a little chunky. Then add in the paneer cheese and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Preferred is to let it sit for 2-3 hours before eating. It always tastes better when it sits for a little and the ingredients are able to marinate together.

Serve over basmati rice with a side of warmed naan & enjoy!

*Notes: It seems like a complicated recipe, but truly it’s very easy and delicious. I realize that if you don’t have all the spices, it can get pricey. You can always just buy a little of each spice in bulk for a cheaper way to buy them. Once you make it once, you’ll want to make it again, trust me! So it’ll be good to have some extra spice laying around!