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Palak Paneer

"Given to me by a co-worker from Bangalore, this is a southern Indian recipe for palak paneer. It was easy to make and very delicious!"

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Why it works: Spinach and paneer work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

2 servings
Prep15 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Bring a pan of boiling water to a boil, add the chopped spinach and cook 1 minute until wilted. Drain, then blend with the chopped green chile peppers until smooth.

  2. Heat half the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry the paneer cubes 3 to 4 minutes, turning, until lightly golden on all sides. Remove and set aside.

  3. Heat the remaining oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook 5 minutes until soft and golden. Stir in the chopped garlic and cook 1 minute.

  4. Add the chopped tomatoes, ground cumin, ground coriander, ground red chiles and salt. Cook 5 minutes, stirring, until the tomatoes break down and the oil starts to separate.

  5. Pour in the water and the spinach puree. Simmer on low heat 5 minutes, stirring often.

  6. Add the fried paneer cubes and simmer 3 minutes to heat through. Serve hot.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Spinach + paneertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Tomato + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,966 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Cumin + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, cumin, pepper, garlic, tomato, coriander, paneer):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, cumin, pepper, garlic, tomato, coriander, paneer. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).