Recipes
Saag Paneer Recipe
May
Saag paneer is one of those dishes that just feels good. Creamy spinach, warm spices, and soft, golden paneer — it’s comfort food at its best. The dish itself has been around for a long time. Saag means “greens” in Hindi, and it’s usually made with spinach, mustard greens, or whatever is fresh and in season but in British Indian cuisine, it usually only applies to just spinach. Paneer is a firm, Indian cheese that holds up well when cooked and soaks in all those delicious spices. This combination has its roots in Northern India, especially the Punjab region, where hearty, spiced greens are a winter favourite.
This recipe has been crafted by the talented Matt Hutson, who’s written quite a few recipes for mattcooperbites.com now and all have gone down an absolute treat. The best thing about this dish is that it doesn’t take hours of prep and can be really completed in 1.5 hours from start to finish. Matt has also used the tikka spice blend to marinade the paneer in which certainly elevates the flavour profiles of the dish.
if paneer isn’t really your thing, then you can add meat to this dish pretty easily. Just add pre cooked chicken tikka (or whatever your choice may be) in the steps where the paneer is added.
You can serve this dish as a side, or even as a main with rice and a naan – the choice is yours!
Key Points
Saag Paneer Recipe
Equipment
- Food processor/blender
Ingredients
- 250 g baby spinach
- 400 g paneer
- 1.5 tbsp Matt Cooper Bites Tikka Spice Blend
- 3 Tbsp veg/rapeseed oil
- 5 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 4 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp ghee optional
- 1 medium onion diced
- 5 tbsp tomato puree mixed with a 3 tbsp of water
- 250 ml veg stock
- 1 vine tomato cut into wedges
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 0.5 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
- 0.5 tsp curry powder
- 0.5 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp kasuri methi
- 0.5 tsp garam masala
- Salt to taste
- Fresh coriander to garnish
Instructions
- Cut the paneer into small cubes. Use Matt Cooper Bites tikka blend with a little oil and mix. Marinate for at least 1 hour.
Cooking the spinach
- Blitz the spinach in a food processor/blender, or roughly chop
- Add 2tbsp oil and 1tsp ghee (optional) to a pan over a medium heat, once hot add half of the chopped garlic and fry until starting to brown
- Add the spinach along with a pinch of salt & turmeric. Gently cook over a medium heat for a 5-10 mins, drawing out the moisture from the spinach. Keep it moving to ensure it doesn’t burn and set aside
Cooking the paneer
- Add the remaining oil and ghee to the pan
- Once hot add the cubed paneer to a pan over a medium/high heat, and cook until you start to see a bit of colour on all sides. Toss well to ensure not to burn. Should take around 10 mins. Remove from pan.
Cooking the curry
- In the same oil/pan used to cook the paneer, add the onion and coat. Sprinkle a little salt on the onions and gently fry until starting to brown (again ensuring not to burn)
- Once the onions are soft add the remaining garlic. Fry for 1-2 mins
- Over a medium heat add the ground spices (except the garam masala), the tomato puree, and mix. Cook out the spices for a minute or so
- Now add the spinach a tbsp at a time. I went with 5 heaped tbsp and this was plenty, but feel free to add more if you wish – mix through.
- After a minute or so add the paneer, and coat
- Add the tomato wedges
- Add the vegetable stock. Start with half and crank up the heat a bit. Mix through and then leave for a minute or two so the stock reduces. Keep an eye nothing is burning here
- Reduce the heat to a medium and add some more stock if you want it saucier
- Add the kasuri methi and garam masala
- Once happy with the consistency garnish with some fresh coriander
