palak paneer- i made it "healthy" and it was good!

Hi- this is my first recipe I've ever posted, so be nice

I have been obsessed with palak paneer lately- mainly the packaged kind, tasty-bite or some other brand. I decided I was going to try and make it myself, and try and make it healthier as well, since I love the idea of eating a ginormous yummy spicy wad of spinach and getting all my vitamins too.

So I tried the Cooks Illustrated methodology- looked up a lot of recipes, choose the simplest/most practical route, and adjust for taste.

I noticed most recipes had a tomato element, hot peppers (of course), onions and assorted seasonings, usually ginger garlic paste, cumin seeds, and some other indian spices (coriander mostly). I don't live by Devon, and wanted to get my stuff at Dominiks/Jewels because I am lazy, so ended up using garam masala for my spices. Couldn't find powdered coriander for some reason.

• one tomato
• 1/2 onion
• tbsp cumin seeds
• garam masala (2 tsps)
• grated ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 or 3 jalapenos
• salt
• lemon
• plain yogurt
• crapload of baby spinach

So for the cooking part, I read some recipes that used lots of oil to sautee everything, or ghee or whatever. I used a small amount of olive oil. Some recipes cooked the tomato seperately to get it mushy and remove the skin, I didn't bother. I basically sauteed the onion, garlic ginger, cumin till the onions were soft, added the diced tomato and jalapeno and cooked it down (I used a pomodoro to minimize seeds), added the spinach and everything else on top. Used a squeeze of lemon.


spinach wad

Then I tossed it in the food processor.

If you want to buy paneer and find it available, that's cool, just sautee it and add it. I was going uber healthy, so I substituted firm tofu cubes. I sauteed them in the same pan the other stuff was in with some salt, so it picked up flavor. The texture worked out great.

I added some of the yogurt to the processed stuff, but you could also swirl on top if you want.



Other things I tried adding were a small handful of cashews- they really need to be cooked till soft though, they ended up giving a grainy texture. Once I forgot the onion- it was missing some sweetness, so I don't recomend leaving onion out. I also tried adding some arugula because I had it around. I thought it would add a nice peppery flavor, but it was gross.

Anyhow, anyone else ever make this, and how did it go for you?