Plant Based Palak “Paneer” Spinach Curry Recipe
Hi guys!
It’s been about a month since I shared my new recipe with you! omg!
How have you guys been?
Last month (March), I attended 2 seminars & traveled to Dubai! Yes, you read it right, Dubai!
Dubai was SO BEAUTIFUL! I fell in love with the city… The people were so kind and warm, the food in Dubai was the BEST and the weather was actually super nice too! Luckily, I missed the heat! ?
I will share some of my travel stories from Dubai, when I get a chance.
After I came home I was dreaming about all the food I had in Dubai. Most of the time we ate plant-based food and to be honest with you, it was not as easy as we thought it would be. More stories will come on my travel blog.
BTW, I tried this Indian spinach curry on the airplane (we flew Emirates) and it was SO delicious! I had to recreate at home with fresh ingredients and make it all plant-based.
Palak Paneer is vegetarian spinach curry and it has cream and cheese as main ingredients along with spinach. I used to enjoy dairy before but now I’m consuming only plant-based food so I had to swap those ingredients with plant-based ingredients.
Paneer has a texture similar to super extra/extra firm tofu.
Creaminess can easily be created by nuts or plant-based milk so it’s an easy fix!
This spinach curry is so easy to make, you will be surprised!
I’m super excited to share my Plant-based Palak Paneer, so let’s get started!
Add 1 cup of hot water and 1/2 cup raw cashew in a blender and let it soak.
When cashew is soaked in hot water, it’s easier to become creamy. This is what will make this curry nice and creamy.
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp cooking oil, 5 cloves crushed garlic, same amount of ginger slices, 1/2 diced onion, 1 roughly cut large tomato and 1 sliced Serrano pepper.
Sauté until the aromatic vegetables are tender and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add into the blender.
Add 4 cups of packed spinach (I used baby spinach) into the same skillet, sauté about 2 minutes or until softened over medium high heat. Add into the blender.
Traditionally, spinach is gently blanched in boiling water but I didn’t feel like taking out another big pot and boiling water and all when I can just “gently” sauté the spinach. lol
To blend this hot curry base safely, remove the center cap from the blender lid and cover with a kitchen towel. Hold lid securely but don’t push kitchen towel. Blend the curry base from lowest speed and gradually increase speed until it’s smooth.
If you want more spinach texture, blend everything without spinach until smooth then add spinach and pulse until your desired texture.
Now, heat the same skillet over medium low heat, add remaining 2 tbsp cooking oil, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp chili powder and 1 tsp cumin seeds.
Stir until you can smell the beautiful aroma, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Super carefully (soup will boil immediately!!), pour the curry base into the skillet and stir until well combined. Season curry with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp nutritional yeast.
Cut 16 oz extra firm tofu into 1/2-inch cubes.
Stir in tofu and cook 1 to 2 more minutes over low heat until tofu is warmed (tofu can be consumed raw) and it’s ready to serve!
Serve Palak “Paneer” with freshly cooked basmati rice, jasmine rice, naan or roti. I also like to eat with my purple rice too. 🙂
Enjoy!
Plant Based Palak “Paneer” Spinach Curry
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup raw cashew
- 4 tbsp Avocado oil or any cooking oil, divided half
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5 thin slices ginger (about same amount as garlic)
- 1/2 large onion, roughly diced
- 1 large tomato, roughly cut into chunks
- 1 Serrano, roughly sliced
- 1 1/4 tsp salt, divided
- 4 cups packed spinach
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder (Indian chili powder), fine gochugaru or cayenne
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast
- 16 oz extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Add hot water and raw cashew in a blender and let it soak.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp cooking oil garlic, ginger, onion, tomato and Serrano pepper. Sauté until vegetables are tender and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add into blender.
- Add spinach into same skillet, sauté about 2 minutes or until softened over medium high heat. Add into blender.
- Remove center cap from blender lid and cover with a kitchen towel. Hold lid securely but don’t push kitchen towel. Blend curry base from lowest speed and gradually increase speed until it’s smooth.
- If you want more spinach texture, blend everything without spinach until smooth then add spinach and pulse until your desired texture.
- Now, heat same skillet over medium low heat, add remaining 2 tbsp cooking oil, ground coriander, turmeric, chili powder and cumin seeds. Stir until you can smell beautiful aroma, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Super carefully (soup will boil immediately!!), pour curry base into skillet and stir until well combined. Season curry with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp nutritional yeast.
- Stir in tofu and cook 1 to 2 more minutes over low heat and it’s ready to serve! Serve Palak “Paneer” with freshly cooked basmati rice, jasmine rice, naan or roti. I also like to eat with my purple rice too. 🙂 Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
Looking for more tofu recipe ideas? Check down below!
13 comments
will be making this soon i love palak paneer sooooooooooooo much perfect with naan am indian and i approved this will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
Want to make today! But i only have roasted cashews at home, I don’t have raw. Can I use roasted?
Yes you could use roasted cashews but the roasted flavor does come through, so keep that in mind when making this substitution. Hope this helped (:
So delicious!! I’ve been following your recipes for years and am so excited to see what creative vegan recipes you come up with! I didn’t have nutritional yeast but I had onion powder which gave it a nice taste too.
Yay! Thank you so much for your support! I’m so glad I could help out!
I finally bought a blender and making this was a good motivator to do it! I tried it for lunch today and it was SO good, Seonkyoung. Funnily enough, I forgot the water and cashews at first! I was about to add the mixture back to the pan but caught it haha. Worked out fine. Definitely going to be one for me to go back to. The spice level is perfect.
This was so delish! I’ve recently gone plant based as well, and I definitely will make this recipe again!
This recipe is great! It wasn’t difficult and the whole family enjoyed it very much! Thanks for the great recipes!
I’m new, and so thrilled to have found this recipe!!! It looks fantastic!! I can’t wait to make it. Will raw sunflower seeds be a good substitute for the cashews?
In my opinion I would try to find raw cashews but if raw sunflower seeds is all you have access to, I think it should work. Hope this helped (:
Just made this and it is SO delicious. I’ve been watching you for such a long time and I’m super excited to try out all your new plant-based recipes as a vegan myself. Just a question, does this recipe freeze well?
YAY! I’m so glad I could help! So with the freezing, I would suggest freezing the curry base with out the tofu added since the tofu won’t freeze well, just add them when you reheat your base! Hope this helped (:
Hi Seonkyoung!
Can I use ground cumin instead of cumin seeds?