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:
Can this be made from frozen chopped spinach?
Hello – Yes, frozen spinach will work in this recipe too. I think it will work without any changes. The instant pot might take a bit longer to come to pressure. Hope you enjoy it!
This was totally bad, I’m not sure what I did wrong. I went to Patel Bros. today to buy Garam Masala…is my mistake that I got powder instead of the whole kernal mix?
Also, this has absolutely no thickness to it..
HELP!
Hi Rebecca – Sorry to hear you did not enjoy the palak paneer. Did you use fresh spinach to make this recipe?
Your blog is always the first place I come to when I am looking for a new recipe to try out and this one turned out perfect. Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into your blog.
Thank you for your kind words, Fatema!
Simple and super delicious. Thanks.
Hi Aruna – Glad to hear you enjoyed the palak paneer!
Looking Delicious recipe of Palak Paneer. Thanks a lot for giving this recipe here.
Divine! I used canned diced tomatoes, powdered ginger, powdered cumin, whole coriander and added cashews bc I love creamy saag. Came out delicious and smooth. Thanks for the tofu substitute suggestion!
Hi Gabriella – So glad to hear you enjoyed the palak paneer. Thank you for sharing ghee changes you made.
I’ve made this about 5 or 6 times now! Family loved it including my 1 year old
Hi Shannon – So glad to hear you all enjoy the palak paneer, especially the little one!
Hi, how do you recommend blending the ingredients if you don’t have an immersion blender?
Hi Amy – You can transfer to a regular blender to blend the spinach. Or if you don’t mind the spinach a bit chunky, you can chop it fine before adding to the instant pot. Hope you enjoy the palak paneer.
A staple in our house now…. easy and simply delicious!
Hey Devi – So glad to hear you all have been enjoying the palak paneer!
Thanks for this delicious recipe! I’ve always discarded the spice pouch after cooking – but is that whatI’m supposed to do?
Hi Monica – Yes, that is the right thing to do. The whole spices impart their flavor to the curry, then they can be discarded. Hope you enjoy the palak paneer!
Where is a spice pouch mentioned above at all?
Hi Rebecca – You are right. This recipe does not have a spice pouch, however someone can choose to add it if they enjoy the flavor of whole spices. I use a spice pouch in my paneer butter masala recipe.