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Love the Grilling Cheese - Saag Paneer

When I received my Hello Fresh box a few weeks back there was a great recipe titled: Grilled Cheese and Veggie Jumble

That dish was just delicious and it was the 'grilling cheese' which was the best part.  I had not used it before in any of my cooking and after looking on line, it is just paneer, the Indian cheese that I love in my favorite dishes Saag Paneer and Palack Paneer.  I had never tried to actually make either of these recipes, but I decided to give it a try.  Rachel and I found a recipe for Saag Paneer on AllRecipies.com and gave it a go!  We had it with naan and stuffed yellow peppers.   You can modify the heat to your liking.


Saag Paneer


Ingredients:

12 - 16 oz fresh spinach
1/2 lb paneer, cubed into 1-1 1/2 pieces*
3 T oil (vegetable oil or olive oil)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 roma tomato, diced
2t ground cumin
1t ground ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
2t garam masala
1 t tumeric
+/- 1 T sambal oelek (or other hot chili paste),  or 1/2  t dried Cayenne pepper
1/2 C heavy whipping cream
salt to taste

*Hint:  If you keep the paneer in larger pieces (8 oz into 4 pieces), you don't have to turn all of the tiny cubes during cooking.  It saves time.  Simply cube after cooling.
 

Directions:

  1. Bring a large pan of water to boiling (large enough to hold all of the spinach).  Cook spinach until wilted, approx 2 - 3 minutes)
  2. Remove spinach from pan and put in blender or food processor.  Pulse until fine, about 4-5 pulses.  This step is optional.  You can keep the spinach whole if you prefer.  SImply set aside for later.
  3. Heat 1 T of oil in same large pan (remove water first) over medium heat.  Fry paneer pieces until golden on each side, approx 5 mins per side.  Remove from pan and set aside.
  4. Heat 2 T of oil in same pan over medium heat.  Add onion.  Cook until softened and translucent, about 7 minutes.  Add cumin, ginger, garlic, garam masala, tumeric, sambal oelek and tomato.  Cook and stir until tomato is soft, approx 10 additional minutes.
  5. Stir in spinach, cream, paneer cubes and salt to taste.  Stir gently, cover pan and cook for 15 minutes over low heat.
Saag Paneer