Instant Pot Palak Paneer

I have been cooking on a stove top pressure cooker for several years but jumped on board the Instant Pot bandwagon this past December. My daughter was more of a reason I bought the instant pot. She makes her own lunches but has limited time to cook and she didn’t want to cook in my old style pressure cooker. So, finally, I bought one. Instant pot is a smart multi-use electric pressure cooker. It is easy, safe and convenient for cooking up everyday foods, like porridge, hard boiled eggs, lentils soups, cakes and much more. If you are new to instant pot cooking which I doubt, read the manual and familiarize yourself to the buttons and the different features of your instant pot model. I bought a 6 quartz nova plus from Costco and I completely love it.

For my very first recipe, I choose to post Palak Paneer, the popular north Indian dish. It was made yesterday, for a cold and snowy day here in Richmond BC, when something comforting was needed.

this morning

‘Palak’ stands for spinach and ‘Paneer’ for the fresh Indian cottage cheese. It is often used in curries since it absorbs all the flavors of the curry like a sponge. Palak paneer is a no fuss, healthy one pot dish with very simple flavors and without the complexity of spices. It comes together quickly entirely in instant pot. This recipe is incredibly easy, there really is no way you can mess it up. I used store-bought (gluten-free) paneer, and pre-washed baby spinach.  My family loves spinach a lot so I buy these tubs of fresh baby spinach every week when I go grocery shopping. It’s convenient to use. I don’t wash this baby spinach but do check it for bugs ( though I have never found any).

The real beauty of cooking palak paneer in instant pot is having the ability to both cook and blend in a single pot without having to blanch or transfer to a blender.  To start, set the instant pot to “Sauté”, it will display the default setting Normal. When the pot is hot, add oil and swirl around. Saute the onions, ginger, garlic, green chilies, stirring intermittently. Cook to the point where the onions begin to brown and may stick to the bottom a little. When they do add a splash of water and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Then add tomatoes and spices. Let the tomatoes cook until soft.  Press “Cancel”. This will cancel the saute function.

Add spinach and water to the insert of instant pot. Put the lid on, turn the valve to Sealing, and select “Pressure Cook” feature on high for 1 minute. In olden Instant pots, I believe the pressure cook button is called “Manual”. It will take about 8-10 minutes to come to pressure. When the time is up for the chosen cycle it will beep. Allow the instant pot to naturally release pressure for 5 min, then turn the steam knob and quick release the remaining pressure. Carefully open the lid and use an immersion blender to puree the contents.  Press “Saute” again and adjust to “less”. You change between Less, Normal and More setting by pressing the Saute feature multiple times.  Stir in paneer and garam masala. Check for seasoning, add water if you need a thinner gravy. Once the curry comes to a low boil. Cancel the ‘saute’function. At this point, you can choose “keep warm” mode. This function keeps the food warm at a safe temperature until you are ready to eat it.

Palak paneer is ready to be served. Some people add fried paneer and heavy whipping cream to make the curry rich. I prefer not to, not even for parties. The curry is full of flavor,  beautifully spiced, creamy without any cream, perfect with missi roti and  carrot raita.

I truly hope you like this recipe. If you try let me know. Take a picture, use the hashtag #simpleglutenfreekitchen and tag me @simpleglutenfreekitchen on Instagram and Facebook.

I am bringing this healthy Palak Paneer to the linky Cookonceeattwice, and CookBlogShare.