Palak Paneer gnocchi

You can follow @nypoonam on Instagram to find a video of this recipe and many other eclectic and carefully curated recipes. You can find the video link for the gnocchi recipe here.

Gnocchi is a go-to when deciding what to order in an italian restaurant. Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi is one of my favorite Italian dishes, as its less dough-y than regular potato gnocchi and richer in protein due to the cheese. Since ricotta cheese is very similar to paneer, I decided to give gnocchi a desi twist and make palak paneer gnocchi. ricotta gnocchi normally has egg yolks added to it to give the crumbly cheese some binding as the gnocchi are poached in water and if the consistency of the dough is not perfected, they tend to disintegrate in the water.

I perfected the recipe after many failed attempts, finetuning each ingredient to get the same result without adding egg yolks. the egg yolks, help as a binder and also give some fluffiness to the gnocchis when poached. A little pinch of soda is added to get a little fluffiness, which you lose with removing the egg yolk from the recipe. Depending on the texture and water content of the paneer, you may need to add a little boiled potato to make a cohesive dough. To make a gluten-free version, you can use only boiled potato and some GF flour.

This recipe makes about 40-50 small gnocchis, which makes 2-3 portions

Ingredients:

200 g paneer

140 g baby spinach, I used a whole salad box of baby spinach

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

1-2 green chillies

1/2 tsp corriander powder

1/4 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

salt to taste

~1/3 cup of all purpose flour

a handful of cilantro leaves

2 tbsp butter

a pinch of kasuri methi, cumin seeds and chilli flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp cream

1 small boiled potato – to be used only if needed – based on the dough consistency

Procedure:

• Wash the spinach leaves. If you’re using baby spinach, the stems don’t need to be removed. If you’re using mature spinach, remove the thick part of the stems
• boil a pot of water, add some salt and spinach leaves and let simmer covered for 3-5 minutes – until fully blanched
• strain the spinach leaves and squeeze as much water out as possible – this is an important step as you want to make sure everything that goes in the gnocchi dough is as dry as possible, this will ensure you need very little flour to add and your gnocchis will be light and soft.
• In a food processor, take paneer (crumbled/ shredded) and add the blanched spinach, cilantro leaves, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, coriander-cumin powders, garam masala and half a pinch of baking soda – and blitz it till well combined.
• you should get a beautiful green mixture at this point.
• Add the all purpose flour, little by little, until the mixture starts coming together to form a cohesive dough
• If the dough is too crumbly add a little boiled potato (a spoonful at a time) till you attain a consistency where you can make tight balls of the dough
• shape gnocchi individually in small bite sized pieces in any shape that you like. At this point, you can store these lined in a plate in the fridge, you can make these ahead of time up to this stage and poach just before serving.
• In a large saucepan, heat some water, keep it covered and bring it to a gentle simmer, don’t let it boil
• gently drop the gnocchi in the simmering water. Make sure that the water does not have a rolling boil, you want the water to be calm for the gnocchi to cook without disintegrating.
• cover and poach in the hot water for 5-7 minutes
• In a separate pan, heat some butter and add the cumin seeds, chilli flakes and a pinch of kasuri methi
• Once the gnocchis are cooked through, they start floating in the water, that’s the sign to tell they are ready. Transfer them gently to the seasoned butter and toss lightly.
• Turn off the heat and finish with a touch of olive oil and some cream, to create a light sauce
• Plate and serve immediately