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 the 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:
Hi
This recipe sounds yummy! How would I cook this if I wanted to use cauliflower instead of paneer? Thanks
Hey Darshini – To add cauliflower, I would cut large size florets and keep them in a pot-in-pot steamer basket on a trivet. Then after blending the spinach, add the cauliflower to the curry. Another option could be to roast the cauliflower in an air fryer or oven and then add to the spinach curry. Hope that helps!
Do you know what the weight of the paneer is? I bought a 14oz package of Gopi paneer, should I just use the whole thing?
I did not weigh the paneer, but I would say use 2/3 of the pack. I usually get this same size pack. If you love paneer, you can very well use the whole pack too 🙂
Hi Meeta, Recipe looks really tasty.
The red color pot in the picture looks nice, is it made up of mud? I would like to get one, where can I found it?
Thank you in advance for reply.
Su
Hello Su – thank you so much. I got that pot from Mumbai, India. I have not seen it here in the US yet. You can try searching on Amazon “earthen pot for serving”.
Is this OK to make ahead one day in advance?
Hey Sarah – Yes, absolutely. You can make this a day in advance and refrigerate it. Just microwave until it is hot so the paneer softens and enjoy!
Amazing recipe! This tasted *exactly* like my favorite Indian restaurant’s version. This will be a regular in our house now!
I used about 3/4 cup of water, and that worked well; it was a little spicy for us, so we’ll do half of a serrano pepper next time.
Hey Lea – So glad to hear you found the palak paneer similar to your fav indian restaurant. Thank you for sharing back your review!
Delicious and so easy to make! Thank you!
Hey Tania – Glad to hear you enjoyed the Palak Paneer. Thank you for sharing back your review!
Love your blog and recipes. They’ve helped me to make healthy Indian meals for my family. This was a great recipe. I think next time I will add some more spinach leaves. Any tips on getting the paneer to be softer? It’s delish as it is, but oftentimes the paneer in restaurants is a bit more melt-in-your mouth.
Hello – It makes me so happy to hear that the blog is helping you make healthy meals for your family. Which brand paneer are you buying? or are you making it? When buying, I prefer the Haldirams brand paneer from the indian grocery store.
Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll try the Halidram brand next time. I’ve been buying the paneer costco sells. Tonight’s dinner is south meets north. (Dosa batter bought at my local farmer’s market and your Dahi vale aloo.
Hello – That sounds wonderful! I used to get the Nanak paneer too, however Haldirams has been much better. Hope you enjoy the Aloo 🙂
Hi! Thanks for the recipe! I followed it accordingly, however, I received a burn notice after the pot was preheating for a long time. Luckily the spinach was cooked and the flavor tasted great! Only difference is that I was using an instant pot ultra and that I used baby spinach. Please advise regarding burn notice.
Hey Tina – Thank you for sharing back your experience. I would suggest to deglaze the pot well, and turn it off while you add the spinach so that the liquid does not all dry up. If this is an issue again, feel free to increase the amount of liquid. Hope you make it again 🙂
I often cook the palak paneer with normal pan but it looks so convenient when cooked by the instant pot! Maybe I will buy one in near future!
– Natalie Ellis
Hello Natalie – It is great to have the one-pot convenience for many dishes with instant pot. Hope you enjoy it!
Can I substitute ricotta cheese for the paneer? I was going to make my own paneer, but I have ricotta cheese that I bought for a recipe that I ended up not making, and I’m wondering if it would work here, or is it too soft? Thanks.
Hello Judith – I don’t think ricotta will work, as in this recipe we need cubes of paneer, which may not be possible with ricotta. Hope that helps!
You could actually use mozzarella cheese cubes and they work great too!
That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing!