Palak Paneer is one of the most popular dishes 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 the 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.
Table of Contents
Watch How to Make Palak Paneer
How to make Palak Paneer in Instant Pot?
This is an easy to make dish, you don’t need too many ingredients. The basic ingredients are onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, and some spices. And of course, spinach and paneer. I used a whole box of baby spinach from Costco.
1- Start the Instant Pot and sauté the ginger, garlic, and onions in oil, along with aromatic cumin seeds.
Then add tomatoes and spices. I chopped the onions and tomatoes. However, you can cut them into large pieces, as we will be blending them later.
2- Then add the spinach and pressure cook for 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 it 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.
Let it rest for 5 minutes. This will help 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.
Hope you enjoy this easy one-pot Palak Paneer recipe.
If you love spinach, here are some more Indian spinach recipes:
Instant Pot Palak Paneer Recipe (Pressure Cooker)
Video
Ingredients
- 1 lb Spinach (Palak), washed
- 2 cups Paneer or Cottage cheese, cut in bite sized cubes
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1 teaspoon 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 teaspoon Garam Masala
Spices
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Chili powder (Mirchi powder)
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1 teaspoon 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Check out other Instant Pot Curries you might enjoy:
Rest recipe, simple making.
I have a question. I am inviting a couple for dinner at home. They are vegetarian and cook good. For some reason I have developed a bad reputation that I do not know how to cook! I want to surprise everybody, including my wife. I think I make good food or at least I can make good food. Do you have any suggestions for recipes
Hi Neeraj – I suggest making chole or dal makhani, along with a 1-2 subzi such as paneer tikka masala, aloo gobi, or palak paneer. You could make peas pulao or jeera rice along with it. I hope everyone enjoys the dinner. I love that you are making such an incredible effort to impress your guests. I also have this post in case it helps – https://pipingpotcurry.com/indian-party-menu-ideas/
Very easy recipe and delicious. My kids love it over garlic naan like a naan pizza!!
Hi – That sounds like such a fun and tasty idea—turning it into a naan pizza! I’m so glad the kids loved it. 🙂
Love this recipe for taste and ease! And have shared the link with so many people 🙂
Hi Sonali – So glad you love it!
So easy and so tasty! Perfect for a weeknight dinner.
I made this today and added 7 small florets of broccoli when I added the spinach to the instant pot. It came out so good. Thank you for this lovely recipe.
I’ve made about 6 recipes from this website, and each one is amazing. I don’t have a pressure cooker, so I just cook them on the stove top for a little longer than the recipe calls for. This was absolutely delicious. I used a Serrano pepper and didn’t fry the paneer. It was perfect. Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes. They feature weekly in our home.
Hi Tori – I’m thrilled to hear that you’ve had success with multiple recipes from the website and that they’ve become a regular in your home! Thank you for your kind words, and happy cooking! 😊
this recipe is delicious and easy. loved it
Hi Chandni – So good to hear that 🙂
My wife and I have a CSA and in addition to spinach we throw all our random greens in there – mustards, beet tops, carrot tops, etc and it tastes amazing every time. We pan fry the paneer while the curry cooks and add more garam masala and salt than the recipe calls for.