How to make the most delicious Palak Paneer, a popular Indian recipe made with cubes of paneer cheese bathed in a fragrant, creamy spinach sauce. Low-carb, vegetarian, gluten-free, and ready in 30 minutes. Video.
And the wheel goes round and round, and the flame in our souls will never burn out.
Rosanne Cash
Why You’ll Love this Palak Paneer Recipe
As a chef and former restaurant owner, I’ve cooked countless variations of Palak Paneer over the years. My travels through India also deepened my appreciation for the nuances between palak (spinach) and saag (a broader mix of greens). This recipe draws on both experiences and yields something accessible for the home cook.
What makes this version stand out is its authentic flavor and versatility. The luscious spinach sauce pairs beautifully not only with paneer, but also with crispy tofu, chickpeas, roasted veggies, chicken, or even fish. You can even try making homemade paneer, fun and easy!
Here we give the paneer a quick crisp, elevating both texture and flavor. With dozens of authentic Indian recipes on the blog, I’ve fine-tuned this method so you can achieve restaurant-quality results in under 30 minutes. Really!
This is a recipe I return to often in my own kitchen, and based on reader feedback, I know you’ll love it too! You’ll find a hundred uses for the sauce, and trust me, you’ll want to mop up every single drop. Serve it with fluffy basmati rice or warm naan, and you’ll have a cozy, nourishing meal.
What is Palak Paneer?
Palak Paneer is a popular Indian dish, originating in the Punjabi region of North India. Tender cubes of firm cheese (called paneer) are simmered in a creamy spinach sauce infused with warm Indian spices-comforting, wholesome, and full of flavor.
Palak Paneer is very similar to Saag Paneer, but slightly different, in that Saag uses different kinds of greens in the sauce, and Palak uses only spinach. In Hindi, palak means spinach, while saag is more general and means “greens”.
No matter what you want to call it, you’ll love the flavor. The luscious creamy spinach sauce can be a vehicle for so many things. You’ll want to lick the bowl.
Ingredients
- Spinach: Use 10-12 ounces frozen spinach or 1 1/2 pounds fresh baby spinach.
- Paneer: Use our recipe for homemade paneer cheese, or use 24 ounces of store-bought paneer.
- Ghee: Learn how to make your own homemade ghee! If you don’t have ghee, you can substitute it with oil.
- Onion: Use a white or yellow onion.
- Ginger and garlic: Use fresh ginger and garlic cloves for a complex, aromatic flavor.
- Jalapeño: For the green chilies, use one jalapeño or two Serrano chilies.
- Spices: Cumin seeds(or ground), coriander (ground or seeds), garam masala, and black mustard seeds (optional).
- Plain yogurt: Gives the spinach sauce a creamy texture and tangy flavor.
- Cashews: Helps make the sauce rich and silky smooth.
- Optional additions: Cayenne if you want a little kick, or lemon juice if you want it to be tangier.
Variations
There are many protein-rich and vegetable options you can substitute for paneer. Here are some of our favorites!
- Make it vegan with chickpeas or Crispy tofu– I love this with our crispy tofu!
- Try homemade paneer-it’s so rewarding!
- Add Chicken breast – use cubes of cooked chicken breast to the sauce.
- Roasted veggies – roasted cauliflower is nice!
How to make Palak Paneer (step-by-steP)
1. Pan-fry the paneer. Warm a few tablespoons of ghee or olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet. Season the pan generously with salt and pepper. Place the paneer cubes. Let it sit on one side, undisturbed, before flipping the cubes. They should naturally release from the pan. When done, set the paneer aside, covered with foil.
2. Make the spinach sauce. Wipe out the skillet, then add ghee or olive oil to the pan and turn heat to medium. Add onion, ginger, cloves, garlic, and chilies, sautéing until golden brown and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Stir frequently.
Add coriander, cumin, garam masala, and mustard seeds to the pan and sauté 2-3 minutes. Then add the frozen spinach and a cup of water. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered until the spinach is just thawed.
3. Blend the sauce. Transfer the spinach mixture to a blender, along with the yogurt, cashews, salt, and sugar. Blend until achieving a silky smooth consistency. If too dry to blend, add a little water to get the motor going. A blender works best here, but you can use an immersion blender if you prefer.
Taste and adjust flavor, adding a pinch of cayenne for heat or a squeeze of lemon for tang. If it tastes slightly salty, that’s okay-once you add the paneer, it will soak up!
5. Combine. Pour the spinach puree back into the pan over medium-low heat, leaving it uncovered (this preserves its lovely, vibrant color!). Warm gently, stirring often to prevent burning. Add the paneer and continue cooking until warmed through.
6. Serve. Serve palak paneer over fluffy basmati rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice with naan bread, roti, chapati, or plain paratha. Sprinkle fresh herbs over top.
Chef’s Tips
- Choosing your spinach: While you can use fresh spinach, frozen spinach is a bit more cost-effective. You know me, of course, I made this with fresh spinach leaves in the beginning, and yes, you can do this too. But it’s hard watching a whole pound and a half of baby spinach wilt into practically nothing, and in winter, it just seems more cost-effective to simply use frozen spinach. Up to you.
- How to preserve the vibrant green color: Gently cook the sauce and avoid over-simmering after blending. Keep the pan uncovered to prevent dulling.
- For perfectly seared paneer: Pat the paneer dry before adding it to the pan. Let each side develop a gold crust without fiddling with it. When ready, it should naturally release from the pan.
- For a nut-free version: If you can’t use cashews, sunflower or hemp seeds, or even a splash of coconut milk, are good options to try that mimic cashew cream.
- Adjust to taste: Taste the spinach sauce at the end, adding salt for depth, lemon juice for brightness and tang, or cayenne for an extra kick.
Meal Prep & Storage
The spinach sauce can be blended and refrigerated for up to 3 days in advance. Gently reheat and add the freshly seared paneer just before serving.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Palak paneer can also be stored in the freezer for 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating. If you know you’ll be freezing it, store the sauce separately and make the fried paneer fresh.
Serving Suggestions
Serve Palak Paneer over basmati rice, quinoa, Indian lemon rice, or cauliflower rice with a side of naan. Here are some of our other favorite Indian cuisine pairings!
FAQs
Palak paneer is made of pan-seared paneer cheese in a silky spinach sauce made with onion, garlic, ginger, spinach, spices, jalapeño, yogurt, and cashews.
There are many layers of flavor in palak paneer. The spinach sauce is savory, rich, earthy, and aromatic, while the paneer adds a milky, creamy component. The fragrant Indian spices add depth and warmth.
Serve over a bed of fluffy basmati rice with a side of naan bread.
Hope you love this restaurant-style Palak Paneer recipe as much as we do, and please tell me below how you end up using it!
More Vegetarian Indian Recipes
Watch How to Make it
After you try this Palak Paneer recipe, let us know how it turns out in the comments below. Your review will help other readers, too! Sign up here to join our community and receive our latest recipes and weekly newsletter! xoxo Sylvia
Palak Paneer (Paneer in Spinach Sauce)
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: vegetarian dinner, dinner recipe, indian recipe,
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Indian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Ingredients
- 24 ounces paneer cheese (or try our homemade Paneer, crispy tofu, or cooked cubes of chicken breast)
- 3 tablespoons ghee or olive oil
- 1 white or yellow onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons ginger, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1/2 –1 jalapeno (or use 1–2 serrano chillies,) roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons cumin (ground or toasted whole seeds)
- 2 teaspoons coriander (ground or toasted whole seeds)
- 2 teaspoons garam masala, more to taste
- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds (optional, but good)
- 10–12 ounces frozen spinach (1 1/2 lbs fresh BABY spinach, see notes)
- 1 cup water or broth
- 3/4 cup plain yogurt or vegan coconut yogurt
- 1/2 cup cashews, raw if possible
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar or alternative
- squeeze lemon (optional)
Instructions
- Crisp the Paneer. In a large skillet, (a non-stick works great here) heat a few tablespoons oil or ghee and season the oil generously with salt and pepper. Pan-sear the paneer or crispy tofu until golden and crispy, and set it aside, covered with foil.
- Make the spinach sauce. Wipe out the skillet, heat 3 tablespoons ghee over medium heat. Add onion, ginger, garlic and chilies, and sauté until deeply golden and fragrant, stirring often, about 15 minutes, taking your time here.
- Add the spices (coriander, cumin, garam masala and mustard seeds) and sauté 2-3 more minutes. Add the frozen spinach and a cup of water, lower the heat, and simmer uncovered until the spinach is just thawed.
- Blend. Place this in a blender (see notes), topping it with the yogurt and cashews. Add the salt and sugar. Blend well, until silky smooth. If the mixture is too dry to blend, add just enough water to get the motor going. Taste and adjust the heat by adding a little cayenne if you want a stronger kick. Add a squeeze of lemon for a tangier flavor. The sauce will seem slightly salty at first, but once you add the paneer, it will soak up the salt.
- Combine. Place the blended spinach sauce back into the pan, on medium-low heat, uncovered. (Covering may lose the lovely, vibrant color ). Warm it up gently and slowly, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add the crispy paneer and continue cooking until the paneer is warmed through.
Serve over Fluffy Basmati Rice, with Naan Bread Quinoa or cauliflower rice.
Notes
Blending: If you like more “chunky sauce” rather than a smooth creamy spinach sauce , feel free to only blend half of the spinach mixture. If using whole spices, I prefer to blend all the sauce.
Make the flavorful spinach sauce and serve it over anything you like- perfect for mixed households where some want vegan, some want meat. It is tasty over roasted cauliflower, pan-seared chicken or fish, tofu, roasted veggies, etc. Get creative!
FRESH SPINACH: Use baby spinach; mature spinach may make it bitter. Make sure to separately (it may too much to manage in the onion pan) or in batches, and add it to the onion-garlic mixture. You need about 1 ½ -2 cups wilted.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: -with 4 ounces paneer in each serving.
- Calories: 331
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 444.3 mg
- Fat: 24.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Carbohydrates: 12.9 g
- Fiber: 2.8 g
- Protein: 16.4 g
- Cholesterol: 19.2 mg
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I was planning to make this ahead of time and bring to a dinner party. Would you recommend I reheat it in the oven once I arrive? Thank you!
Yes Jamie, cover it and just be careful to not over bake or it will dry out. 😉
Wonderful and so easy to make on a weeknight!
Also, the green color is so vibrant and beasutiful!
Thanks Marley- we just made this last night too. You are right, it was so quick and easy I was wondering why I don’t make it more often!
Delicious! This recipe is a must have in everyone’s meal rotation. You don’t miss the meat at all! My husband was raving about this meal for days.
So glad you liked this Dan!
Could I use almonds in place of cashew?
You could try it- I would soak them first so they get creamy.
This is one of the best recipes I’ve ever made! So impressed with the flavor! I will be making this from now on! Thank you so much for sharing your gift of cooking with us.
thanks so much Rayanne- I’m happy you liked this, I enjoy this one too!
Any recs for a cashew substitute?
Yes, I think they would work fine. Make a cashew cream and stir it in, 1/3 cup cashews (soak first) and 1/3-1/2 cup water. You may need to add a little acidity, squeeze of lemon or couple drops of vinegar.
This dish was simple and delicious. I would definitely recommend adding the lemon juice and salt. Thanks
Amazing! Great flavor!
I have been testing several Palak Paneer recipes lately trying to find “my recipe.” This one is by far the simplest and tastiest of all I have tried.
I highly recommend using whole cumin and coriander seeds to give the flavour “bursts” that make this dish so succulent!
I have made quite a few recipes from the blog (all super delicious), but this one is the crown jewel. I can’t stress enough how extremely delicious the sauce is. I lived in India and this recipe takes me right back. Very easy to put together, too.
Thank you so much!
Dear Sylvia,
I so appreciate you sharing your recipes through the Internet. Whenever I cook from your website, I am delighted by the wonderful flavors and feel so nourished. For the first time, I can reliably reproduce the flavors of Indian cooking at home. This palak paneer is a favorite, and, as you say above, the sauce is wonderful on any protein or starch, not just paneer.
A hundred thanks to you,
Hayden
Thanks Hayden- so happy you enjoyed this!
Love this!! It also freezes well (freeze the sauce only, without the paneer). I add fresh coriander (cilantro) in the blender, as I love the taste of coriander.
Love it!
I was not positive I’d like this – often I order saag paneer for the cheese and suffer through the sauce. But, man!! I could have left the paneer out and been just fine. This is SO good! I love the vibrant green, the creamy, punchy, bright flavor of the palak, and pan-searing the paneer is inspired! We paired it with your grilled tandoori chicken recipe and a quick Indian Tomato Salad. What a feast! Thank you for another beautiful recipe.
This turned out great! The only reason I’m giving 4 rather than 5 stars is that the amount of fresh baby spinach was off for my preferences. 5 oz (much less than 1.5 lb) was plenty and fit in my blender to boot. Any more and I would have been swimming in it!
Did you blend it raw?
We have made this recipe a few times now and love it more and more. We ended up reducing the garam masala to 1 tsp because it was a little clove-y and sweet for our taste the first time, but not all garam masalas are the same so I wasn’t surprised. Also, we found that Panela cheese is easier for us to find, and a very flavorful substitute for the paneer!
Thank u so much for sharing this amazing recipe wid us. Really appreciate ur efforts. It came out to be very delicious. Keep sharing more of such recipes.
This was a delicious dinner! I chose to use a combination of seared chicken and roasted veggies (cauliflower, carrot and potato) instead of the paneer. I also made the ghee and would suggest making this ahead of time if you are making this for a weeknight after work meal. We made on a Sunday and I roasted the veggies ahead of time too. I highly recommend the squeeze of lemon to top it off! Awesome flavor and I can’t wait for my leftovers tomorrow.:)
OMG! Made this tonight and it was SO delicious! Everyone at it up… including the kids – such a good way to get some greens in their little bodies. This is definitely a keeper!
Best Palak paneer wehave ever eaten
🙌 🙌
Next time I’ll add more salt and more jalapenos. Great recipe though!
I stumbled upon this blog to change up my recipe repertoire as quarantine has completely made me bored of all my current recipes on rotation. My very skilled Indian mother and I cooked this palak paneer yesterday to compare to her recipe and it was 5 stars! As she cooks without measurements (I’m not quite there yet!) and as I’m trying to learn more native dishes, we used your recipe for measurement purposes and also because it looked near my mother’s recipe. We followed the directions as written and found this to be creamy, delicious, and the spices palatable to our Indian tastebuds. I would highly recommend this recipe to someone who is venturing into Indian cooking as my entire family found this recipe to be very authentic. Looking forward to trying more of your Indian recipes! Keep them coming!
Great to hear Crystal! Glad the family approved. 😉
So yummy! Palak paneer is my go to take out dish and it was so fun to be able to make it at home. Next time we will try to make the paneer ourselves.
Yay Alice, love it!
This was absolutely delish! I did add some lemon juice to the saag at the end but otherwise followed the recipe. I received multiple compliments and cannot wait to add this into my regular rotation.
This was so so good, my family deemed it restaurant-quality! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks and happy you liked this! 🙌
This is amazing! Totally loved this dish, added a bit more cumin and garam masala: it was a hit. Thank you!