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Saag paneer

This saag is faster than delivery.  I swear.  Eat it with rice or naan.  Though the recipe calls this "saag paneer," the bulk of the recipe is for the sauce: we sometimes make the sauce ahead, freeze it without paneer or other protein, and save it for an "instant dinner" in the future.

Ingredients:
  • 1 medium tomato
  • 2 T ghee butter (or a mild-flavored oil)
  • 1/2 medium onion
  • 1 pound greens
  • 5 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 tsp minced ginger
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp tumeric
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 block paneer, chopped into cubes (or a can of chickpeas, or some tofu, or cooked meat)
The Process:

Put ghee or oil into the base of the Instant Pot and set to saute.  Once ghee is melted (or oil is hot), add garlic, ginger, onion, and tomato and saute for 1-2 minutes.

Put greens, spices, and 1/2 cup water into the pot, and combine with garlic and tomato mix.

Put the lid on the Instant Pot and be sure it's set to "sealing."  Pressure cook for four minutes, then quick release the pressure.

Remove lid and, using an immersion blender, blend until sauce is the texture you'd like.  (We tend to go for fewer chunks of stuff, but you do you.)

Add paneer (or chickpeas, cooked tofu/meat, whatever) and serve.

Pro Tips:

You will notice the recipe says "greens" above.  It literally doesn't matter what kind of greens.  Spinach is most common, but whatever's in your fridge will work.  Beet greens? You've got it.  Kale?  Toss it in!  The proportions will change the color slightly - the more spinach, the lovelier the bright green color is.  But saag is a great use for those weird greens that came in your CSA, for example, and a great way to start using things like beet or turnip greens if you don't usually do so.

Saag is a pretty mild sauce, so it's one recipe where I tend to go lightly on the cayenne or other pepper.  That said, we like spicy food around here, so if you do, too, you may want to amp the cayenne up a bit.  You can also substitute whatever heat source you like: crushed red pepper, for example, works fine.

When I'm using store-bought paneer rather than my homemade, I like to set the Instant Pot to the slow cook feature and let it cook for half an hour or so.  It lets the paneer absorb some of the sauce's flavor.

Obviously, every recipe is better with fresh garlic, fresh ginger, etc.  But sometimes I am tired and lazy.  It is legitimate to use powdered versions or those helpful squeeze tubes of paste if, like me, you are trying to use them up.

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