Paneer Palak Methi Chaman

Blogging Marathon # 35 Week 4 Day 2

Theme : Special Theme : Bookmarked Recipes - online or otherwise

Course : Main Course

During winter season we get lots of green leafy vegetable and especially in Gujarat or Northern region of India include greens in their dishes. If you visit any house you would find either Palak, Methi, Sarso, Bathua, Amaranth etc prepared everyday as one of the main course. They say in Gujarat that Green leafy vegetable are good source of iron, calcium and is warm for body and that is the reason you will see all sorts of green leafy vegetables in winter. At my place it is a must to cook green leafy vegetable atleast once a day when in season, my mom and papa loves methi and hare lashun ki bhaji and it is cooked every alternative day. Now a days we get all sorts of green leafy vegetables throughout the year, but the taste is not same. Somehow in winter i feel the taste of vegetable is something different more fresh and that particular flavour is found only during winter. 

My mom used to make palak with methi when we were kids as methi is bitter and we used to make fuzz to eat, so had to find her ways to feed us in-order to give us good intake of calcium and iron. Then i used to do same with my niece, she was one step ahead she would not eat any green unless it is palak panner so thanks to Tarla ji for this wonderful recipe and now I use the same with my Hubby is no better than a kids. He will not eat methi alone so make this dish specially for him at-least once a week, it healthy, iron and calcium rich and also low cholesterol.

So lets relish this methi masked with palak along paneer in our diet.

Preparation time : 15 mins
Cooking time : 15 mins
Serves : 4
Difficulty level : Medium

Ingredients :

• 1 cup paneer / cottage cheese cut into traingle wedges of 1 - 2"
• 4 cups of spinach leaves blanched
• 2 cups of fenugreek / methi leaves fresh
• 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves / kasuri methi
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/ jeera
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)
• a pinch of turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1/4 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp ginger-green chilli paste
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp fresh cream

Method :

• Heat ghee in kadhai and saute paneer wedges till the edges turn golden brown in colour, transfer it to a plate.
• Roast kasuri methi/ dried methi leaves in apn till crisp, keep it aside.
• Boil water in a pan with a pinch of salt and soda – bi card.
• Wash methi and palak aka fenugreek and spinach seperately in running water.
• Blanch the leaves separately in boiling water fro 2 –3 mins. Transer immediately to cool water.
• Let it drain in strainer and blend till smooth paste or coarse paste as per your preference. Keep aside
• Heat the remaining oil in a non-stick pan, add the cumin seeds and onions and sauté till the onions turn golden brown.
• Add the asafoetida, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, ginger-green chilli paste, prepared puree and dried fenugreek leaves and fry again for 2-3 minutes
• Add the salt, paneer, garam masala, cream along with 1 cup of water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Serve hot with roti/ phulka / rice.

Note :

• Wash green leafy vegetables before chopping in running water or for 3 –4 times as it has sand or soil in roots.
• Always transfer blanched vegetables to ice cold water bath. Reason 1: it helps to retain its colour and 2: Stops from over cooking
• Use of ghee is optional.
• Have made small changes in the dish i.e. used 1 tbsp ghee also.
• To reduce the bitterness of fenugreek, wash them in salted water and also blanch in salted water.
• To attain the saag like texture coarsely grind the palak and methi.

Nutritive values per serving
Energy  : 174 calories
Protein  : 6.9 gm
Carbohydrates  : 5.8 gms
Fat : 15.3 gm
Calcium : 280.3 mg

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#35

Sending this recipe to Prerena Khanwalkar's event Cooking with Green

Hope you have enjoyed reading this post. Please take a minute to share views and valuable comments.

Regards, 

Briju Parthasarathy