Saag Paneer is the authentic North Indian favorite. It is made with cooking mustard leaves and spinach with spices and cottage cheese, which makes it a delicious and nutritious dish. Make it in the instant pot for a quick and easy one-pot recipe.
“Sarson ka saag te makki di roti“, which means mustard saag with bread made from corn meal, is what my Punjabi family loves for a scrumptious weekend meal. This is a very common meal made in villages in Punjab.
Mustard leaves have a a very interesting taste, they are slightly bitter but still very pleasing to the palate. See picutre below. That is one of the main reasons to cook them with spinach. I like to prepare saag with both mustard leaves and spinach, it gives the more authentic taste. If you don’t have mustard leaves at hand, you can prepare it with only spinach as well. But I warn you, it tastes so much better with mustard leaves.
Saag is such a favorite. I have a variety of Saag recipes in case you want to try variations – Saag Aloo, Palak Tofu, Palak Paneer and Saag Chicken.
You can eat saag as is, without any additions to it. In this recipe, I have added paneer to the saag as my daughter loves it. To make it vegan, you can skip the paneer or replace it with tofu.
Some people add radishes and/or broccoli while preparing saag, which is great too. You can also add cauliflower. It helps to get a thicker texture. Radishes help to reduce the bitter taste and balance the flavor. I like to add broccoli when I am making plain saag without paneer. Broccoli/Cauliflower can be added in addition to the greens. Add them before the pressure cooking step.
How to make Saag Paneer in Instant Pot?
This is a very quick, one-pot recipe. Start the instant pot and add in the ghee, green chili, ginger and garlic. Then add in the chopped onions and sauté for a few minutes. The ingredients can be cut into large pieces as we are going to blend them later.
Then add in the mustard, spinach leaves, water and pressure cook for 4 minutes. Release the pressure naturally for 5 minutes, then do a quick release. Add in the corn meal (makai ka aata) and use the immersion blender to grind it to a smooth paste. You can also use a normal blender to grind and then transfer the saag back to the instant pot.
Add in the paneer and cook it for a few minutes. Saag Paneer is ready to be served.
Serve saag paneer with makki ki roti or naan. Add in a dollop of ghee or butter and enjoy!
You might also like these North Indian curry recipes made in the Instant Pot:
Instant Pot Saag Paneer
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1/4 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 2 Green Chili Pepper, optional, adjust to taste*
- 1″ inch Ginger, chopped
- 10 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 2 Onion, medium sized. Cut into large pieces
- 1 bunch Mustard leaves (Sarson), chopped. About 8oz
- 1 bunch Spinach (Palak), chopped. About 8oz
- 1/4 cup Water
- 10 ounces Paneer or Cottage cheese, cut into small pieces
- 2 tablespoon Corn meal (Makai ka aata), fine ground
Spices
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne or Red Chili powder
- 2 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Heat ghee in the instant pot in saute mode. Add jeera, green chili, ginger and garlic.
- Once the ginger and garlic turns golden brown, add the chopped onions. Saute for 3 minutes.
- Add the spices to the instant pot. Then add the mustard greens, spinach and water.
- Change the instant pot setting to manual or pressure cook mode for 4 minutes. When the instant pot beeps, do a 5 minute NPR, which means release the pressure manually after 5 mins. Turn off the instant pot.
- Add in the corn flour. Use an immersion blender to blend the saag to a smooth paste.
- Turn on the instant pot in saute mode. Add in the paneer and cook for about 3 minutes.
- Saag Paneer is ready to be served.
Hi Meeta
Would love to try your recipe.
Can I make this with just mustard greens? I don’t have spinach on hand.
Hey Tanuja – I don’t recommend making with only mustard greens, as the saag might be too bitter. Mustard greens have a wonderful taste, but they can also give a bitterness unless mixed with other milder greens. Hope you enjoy when you try it!
I’ve been searching for a good saag paneer recipe and I’m excited to try yours. If using tofu instead of paneer, would you recommend cooking it separately before adding it to the saag?
Hey Mehnaz – Glad to heat you found the saag recipe. I lightly saute the tofu before adding it to he saag. I posted a palak tofu recipe which you can reference if needed. Hope you enjoy the Saag!
Delicious! I used kale, bok choy and spinach (cuz that’s what I had on hand). It was awesome! Will definitely make again.
Hey Dee – So happy to hear you enjoyed the Saag. This is my favorite healthy dish to enjoy on a week night, as it is so quick to make in the instant pot.
Hello.
I love Saag Paneer and this was a great dish! I will definitely be trying it again.
I did modify it slightly – I used Kale instead of mustard green and I only had medium ground corn meal. This didn’t alter the taste at all.
I did not have an immersion blender so I used my blender. It blended up too smooth for my taste so I just ordered an immersion blender.
My only issue is that the 2 chili peppers made it way to spicy for my taste. I used 2 Serrano peppers. What kind of peppers did you use for this recipe?
Thanks!
Hey Paula – So glad to hear that you enjoyed the Saag Paneer. Any greens work great for Saag, so absolutely great you tried with Kale. I will update the recipe card to mention that the chili peppers are very much optional, and please do adjust to taste. I might have used thai chili peppers in this case, which are much smaller in size than serrano peppers. But Serrano peppers work too, I would suggest to reduce quantity next time. Thank you so much for sharing back your experience and review 🙂
Hi,
Do you use the stems on the mustard greens or remove them. Love your site!
Charles
Thank you, Charles. Just chop the stems a little bit (1-2 inch) at the bottom. Most of the stem can be used as we are going to blend it later. I hope you enjoy the saag.
Stumbled upon your website recently and now it has become my go to place for everything. Made this dish and it is the best sarson ka saag I ever made. I bought a 3 qt instant pot recently and I find that decreasing the time by 1 minute turns the dish out perfectly. I know that the time stated would be perfect for your 6 qt. instant pot. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
So happy you are enjoying multiple recipes on the blog. I agree that the timing could vary with the 3qt instant pot. I do create the recipes using a 6qt. Would love to hear if you try other recipes. Thank you 🙂
I thought saag paneer usually had heavy cream added to it. Could I add the cream at the very end or should I add before cooking?
Hey Samantha – In traditionally made saag at home, we don’t add any cream, rather add lots of ghee. But yes, in restaurants you will always find cream added. Feel free to add it to your taste. It can be added at the end, along with paneer. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks, Meeta! I had to hunt around a bit to find mustard greens in my usual grocery stores, but you are 100% right that they are well worth the effort. Your recipe with 50/50 spinach/mustard green leaves outshines spinach-only saag in flavor, most definitely.
Yay! So glad you liked the saag with mustard greens. Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂
LOVED the recipe! Awesome job on it. This is the most flavorful saag paneer I’ve ever had. 🙂 Even my favorite restaurants make it in such a bland way.
Would chickpeas go well with this saag? I’m not extremely partial to tofu, and I’d like to make a vegan dish using this saag next time.
Hey Amber…so happy you enjoyed the saag paneer. There are any number of variations you can do with saag. I have added tofu, corn, potato or chickpeas. So yes, so try your favorite addition to it ❤️
My family absolutely loves this. I’ve made it several times already. It’s easy to make and incredibly satisfying. Thanks!
Thanks Jason! So glad your family loves it ❤️