Saag Paneer (Low Fat Cheese With Spinach)

deinemuse's Note:

I took this from the Betty Crocker cookbook for Indian food and modified it for a lower fat version. This is an amazing recipe! See my cheese recipe for reduced fat paneer (#246295).

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 3

• 2 garlic cloves
• ½ cup tomato sauce
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach , thawed
• 1 cup cubed panir (optional)
• 1 cup low-fat whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon red cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Use cooking spray and heat garlic and ginger over medium-high heat till golden brown.
2. Stir in tomato sauce, coriander, cumin, pepper, masala, salt, and reduce heat to low. Partially cover and summer for 8-9 minutes stirring frequently.
3. Stir in spinach. Simmer 8-10 minutes until spinach turns olive green.
4. Stir in whipping cream.
5. Stir in cheese. Simmer for 3-4 minutes or until cheese is hot and remove from stove.

Reviews

[Nikoma]

Oh this is so good! This is my favorite dish when we go to the local Indian Restaurant. I get cravings for it all the time and I finaly know how to make it! I'm so happy! I did cut the cayenne in half and I'm really glad I did. I like hot, but even with the 1/2 tsp this had a good kick. Next time I will decrease the cream as well - It took a bit away from the perfect tomato/spice mixture (and I even added a little extra spinach to use it up). I looked up how to make the panir, and having made mozzarella before it seemed like a very very similar cheese so I used cubed mozzarella (that was at room temp) in place of panir. I just added it last- after the heat was off and it had cooled somewhat. Worked out great! This is such a keeper!

[Heidi T.]

Awesome! I love saag paneer, and this recipe was so simple and easy! I didn't think I could make this dish so easily at home. We didn't change too much.. I doubled the recipe and made adjustments to some of the spices to fit our tastes. I also added one large onion chopped, and we only used about half the suggested amount of cream as some others suggested. And we only used 7 oz. of paneer cubed even though we doubled the spinach. If I made any change next time, I'd probably use less cayenne and process the spinach to get a more creamy smooth texture. We like it spicy hot, but it was a little too hot for us.

[Chef #1131126]

We made tikka masala (from America's Test Kitchens, rice pilaf, naan bread (from local grocery store) and kheer (from this web site...listed as World's Best and it is!) for a great Indian dinner.

I loved the flavors of this dish and it smelled wonderful while it was cooking. I doubled the recipe but only used 1 1/2 cups cream and did not double the cayenne. I felt it needed more tomato sauce but I didn't have any more so I used some extra tomato paste and it worked out great. It did make a lot so we had leftovers the next day and they heated up nicely.

My local grocery store did not have paneer but I called around and was able to find it at Whole Foods. Reading online, it seems that there is not a good substitute for the cheese.

Great recipe. Highly recommend it. We'll defintely be making this again.