Getting Started--Low fat recipe for Palak Paneer

If you are visiting this blog, you are interested in fat free cooking as well... welcome!
Lets share our experiences and tastes.

Cooking is my hobby, my passion.
and as vouched by my family & friends... I am a good cook.
In search of reduced fat diets, experimenting with food,I have learnt to go fat free.
Indian food is usually oil & fat heavy.Traditional indian cooking tends to include frying in oil, ghee,addition of dairy products like creame etc.

Although I like cooking the traditional way when I play the gracious hostess, I like to go for the leaner version for everyday cooking. Not entirely depriving my family from traditional Indian tastes, I have come up with several alternate ways of cooking by which you can still enjoy the great Indian dishes..but with a healthy twist.

In this blog, I wish to share my experiences, and welcome you to share your tips/experiences for the same.I shall be including my TIPS, within the recipes, which you can later use in your own experiments as well.

A few items I find very handy to support your fat free cooking--- non-stick pans(no surprise there), a hand blender or food processor(basically something to puree your stuff).

In this first post, I wish to share the recipe of the popular indian dish Palakh-Paneer(spinach with Paneer cheese).
However, if you wish to go dairy free, you can replace paneer with firm tofu, and milk with soya milk.

My fat free palak-paneer recipe:

ingridients:
Spinach
1tsp Whole cumin seed(jeera)
2 tomatoes
250 gms paneer(firm tofu--if using tofu)
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 inch piece of ginger root
1 tbsp plain yogurt
Some milk
Salt to taste

Method:
1.Wash the spinach, cut the paneer(tofu) into bite-size cubes.
2. Puree the onions, set it aside.
3. Puree the tomatoes and set aside.
TIP:using purees increase the water content and aids fat free cooking
4. Mix the cumin,corriander, turmeric and chilli powder in a bowl with a little water, to make a liquidish-paste.
TIP:Adding water to the spices, keeps it from burning while cooking, even in the absence of oil.
5.Microwave the spinach with the ginger and garlic cloves for 5 mins(or until all the spinach wilt, give a good stir in between.)
6.Remove from microwave and puree the spinach and ginger-garlic into a fine paste.
7.Heat well a cooking pan, not smoking, but well heated.
8. Pop in the cumin seeds, and dry fry them until you get a nice aroma,
and the seeds get toasted. Take care,keep stirring. These seeds tend to burn very easily.
If burnt they'll give a bitter taste.
9.Add the onion puree. Keep stirring until turned golden.
10. Add the pureed tomato to the pan.stir well.
11.Add the spice emulsion created in step 4, cook for a few minutes.
12. Add the spinach puree.Cook for 2 minutes.
13. Add the cubed paneer(tofu), salt(to taste) and allow to cook covered for 2-3 minutes.
14.You can add some milk(soya milk), until you get the deserved consistency for the dish.
15. Decorate with the yogurt and serve.
TIP: Use plain set yogurt to replace creame.You'll hardly notice the difference.

Keep watching this space for more fat free recipes and cooking tips.