Palak Paneer is one of the most popular dish from North India. It is made with Spinach and Cottage Cheese, cooked with ginger, garlic, onions and aromatic spices. This is a simplified one-pot version of the authentic palak paneer, made in Instant Pot, which takes just 20 minutes to prepare. This is a nutritious Vegetarian, Gluten-free and Low Carb dish.
Instant Pot Palak Paneer is made with Spinach and Indian Cottage Cheese. There is another popular North Indian dish, Mustard Greens Saag, which is very similar, however it is made with both Mustard Greens and Spinach. If you want to make this dish Vegan, check out the Palak Tofu recipe. And if you like to include Chicken in place of Paneer, check out my popular Chicken Saag.
Don't forget to check out my post on 23 Best Instant Pot Indian Recipes.
How to make Palak Paneer in Instant Pot?
This is an easy to make dish, you don't need too many ingredients. The basic - onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and some spices. And off course spinach and paneer. I used a whole box of baby spinach from Costco.
1 - Start the instant pot and saute the ginger, garlic and onions in some oil, along with aromatic cumin seeds. Then add tomatoes and spices. I chopped the onions and tomatoes. However you could cut them into large pieces as we are going to blend them later.
2- Then add in the spinach and pressure cook for just 2 minutes. I prefer to release pressure after 5 minutes of the cooking being done. This helps to retain the beautiful color of the spinach.
3 - I use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients. You can leave it coarse or blend smooth, based on your preference. If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer to your countertop blender or food processor to blend.
4 - Stir in the Paneer and some garam masala, and let it rest for 5 minutes. This will help for the paneer to get soft and soak in the flavors. I don't fry the paneer, however if you prefer it lightly fried, that would work perfectly too. Palak Paneer is ready to be served with rice, naan or parathas.
Instant Pot Palak Paneer Recipe (Pressure Cooker)
Ingredients
- 1 lb Spinach (Palak) washed
- 2 cups Paneer or Cottage cheese cut in bite sized cubes
- 1 tbsp Ghee or Oil
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 Green Chili Pepper chopped
- 1 Onion medium, chopped
- 5 cloves Garlic chopped
- 1" inch Ginger chopped
- 1 Tomato medium, chopped
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
Spices
- 1/2 tsp Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1/2 tsp Red Chili powder (Mirchi powder)
- 1 tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1 tsp Salt adjust to taste
Instructions
- Start the instant pot in sauté mode. Heat oil and add cumin seeds.
- When cumin seeds start to splutter, add ginger, garlic, green chili and onions. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add tomato and spices. Stir and let it cook for 2 minutes.
- Add water and deglaze the pot (see notes). Add in the spinach. Press cancel and close the instant pot lid with vent in sealing position. Set on manual or pressure cook mode on high pressure for 2 minutes.
- Once the instant pot beeps, do a 5 minute natural pressure release, which means release the pressure manually 5 minutes after the beep.
- Blend the ingredients in the pot to a creamy texture using an immersion blender.
- Add the paneer and garam masala. Let it sit for 5 minutes, so the paneer soaks in the flavors.
- Palak Paneer is ready to be served with naan, roti or paratha.
Video
Notes
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Nutrition
Check out other Instant Pot Curries you might enjoy:
My husband just said ‘Wow, I’m never going to order restaurant Palak Paneer again!’ Thank you so much for such an easy, foolproof and truly delicious Palak Paneer!
Hi Amanda - So good to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience 🙂
This recipe was fantastic! I made it as described here, just the paneer I had had been fried and frozen ahead of time.
Hi AS - Glad to hear you enjoyed the palak paneer!
This is our absolute favorite palak paneer recipe. So much so that I'd like to double it next time. I use an 8qt IP duo. How much should i increase the water and cooking time for a double batch, Thank you!
Hi Kate - Glad to hear you enjoyed the palak paneer. The pressure cooking time will remain the same even if you double the quantity. You can increase the amount of water proportionally.
This turned out great! I made added a little extra water by mistake and realized it would have been better to avoid adding too much water. I liked how simple it was yet tasted so delicious!
Hi Gunjan - So good to Hear that. Thank you for sharing back 🙂
This was so easy and delicious! I added smoked salt since I like the smokey flavor and finished with fenugreek leaves. Next time I will double the recipe in my 6QT IP to help with blending (or use my smaller IP), although I'm doing multiple recipes on your site and trying to just use one device. Thank you so much!
Absolutely delicious and easy to make dish! My family loves it! I have made this along with 5 other dishes and all turned out excellent 😉 Thank you so much!
I was wondering if palak paneer could be freezed?
This recipe is very good. I used to do it the the traditional way on the stove and took a long time. This Instant pot method here is very quick and tastes good too. Saves lot of time. I used baby spinach and Nanak paneer.
Hi Sushama - Glad to hear you enjoyed the palak paneer recipe!
I've made this recipe a couple of times - the palak gravy has a slightly bitter aftertaste even though I cooked the spinach only for two minutes. Is there a way to prevent that from happening?
Hi Kavya - I read that the bitter aftertaste can be due to oxalic acid in spinach leaves (make sure to remove the stem). To balance this out, you can add a little cream at the end or a tiny bit of sugar and lime juice. Hope that helps!
Thank you for yummy recipe. Do have any recommendations for frying paneer in air fryer?
Hi Sneha - I have not fried paneer to add to palak paneer. But I have tried marinating and air frying like paneer tikka. You can do that at 360F for about 8-10 minutes.
My family loves it.
The recipe was extremely yummy