Palak Corn is one the most delicious dishes. It is best when fresh corn is available in the markets. It is also quick dish to prepare under 30 minutes.
Palak Corn as the name suggests is made with Palak or Spinach and Corn as the main ingredient and spices bring the dish together.
Its quick and so delicious.
Palak means spinach. If you love Palak Paneer or Palak Chana, you will definitely love this dish.
During the season of fresh corn, it is imperative to me to make a lot of dishes with corn. This dish is one of those dishes. Spices used in this dish are very simple and found easily in your pantry, especially if you are into cooking with spices.
You can also use a mix of greens like collard, kale, mustard leaves etc. along with spinach. But my recipe only uses spinach.
The other ingredients that go into this dish are onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies and tomatoes.
How to make this dish?
The next step is so easy and simple.
We boil corn, it makes the corn sweeter, and it will not shrink while cooking in spinach puree. If you are using white corn, you can add ¼ tsp of turmeric powder while boiling the corn. It will give it nice yellow color. In the same water you can blanch spinach as well after removing the corn.
Immediately put blanched spinach in cold water and blend it. It does two things – cool it down for blending (never blend hot stuff in blender) it can cause accidents and retain green color.
I sauté onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies and tomato paste in some oil, then once it looks slightly cooked, add blended spinach to the same mix with some water. Add spices and let it cook. In place of tomato paste, you can also use chopped tomatoes. Usually, for Palak Paneer, I cook everything along with spinach and then blend it. I wanted this dish to be little chunkier in consistency, so used chopped onions. But if you want a smoother sauce, you can blend the onion, tomato paste along with spinach. It is really a personal preference.
Then goes in the spices. Once the spices are added, it does not need a lot of cooking time as everything was cooked when we blended it. Add the boiled corn and give it a garlicky tadka.
Now this tadka is optional, but if it just perks up the dish and if you haven’t had garlicky spinach, you are slightly missing out. It tastes so good.
You can enjoy palak corn with some ghee jeera rice or plain rice. I usually make it with some layered triangle parathas or if I feel like having a fancy meal then with naan. Choice is yours.
Tips and Suggestions
How do you keep the spinach looking green?
I don’t do anything special to it. I feel though, the more you cook spinach it changes the color. So, I do not let it simmer too much after blending. I also do not put too much turmeric powder. Some people blanch spinach and then put it immediately in cold icy water to maintain the green color. Some people also add baking soda while blanching. Taste wise it will not make a difference, whether it looks right green or dark green. But I know bright green spinach looks beautiful.
If you are using frozen spinach, you can blend it directly.
I like to multitask, so while the corn is boiling I will chop up onions and keep everything else ready. I will also start cooking the onions, garlic while spinach is blanching. That way you save a lot of time.
Once the spinach is cooking with spices, I also make tadka. You can pour tadka anytime once the dish is ready to be served. It does not need to be made fresh or warm.
There is no cream in this recipe, but feel free to add some if you like. However, it is not at all necessary. Or vegans can add some cashew cream on top.
Regardless, how you make this dish, it’s one of those easy weeknight dishes full of healthy stuff. Serve it warm with any side dish of your choice.
How to Store leftovers?
Like every other curry, leftovers work just fine. Store it in a container in the fridge. If you want to make it in advance, you can boil the corn, spinach puree, and the tadka all and keep it ready.
Just cook and assemble the dish on the day of serving.
Palak Corn – Spinach Corn
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of spinach about 2 cups puree
- 1-2 corn boiled
- 2 garlic cloves 1 grated 1 thinly sliced
- 1- inch ginger piece
- 1-2 green chilies roughly chopped
- 1 medium sized red onion chopped
- 1/3 cup tomato paste or small tomato chopped
- ½ tsp red chili powder plus ½ tsp of tadka
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 2 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp coriander/ cumin powder
- 1-2 tsp garam masala
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder optional
Instructions
Boil Corn and Blanch Spinach
- Dehusk the corn and cut into 3 parts and boil it with water for 5-7 minutes. Make sure corn is submerged in water, so use a bigger pot if needed. Remove the corn and blanch spinach in the same water for 2 minutes. Immediately, put spinach in icy cold water to cool down before blending it.
Subji or Curry
- Meanwhile, take some oil in a pan on medium heat. Add onions, grated garlic, ginger and finely chopped green chilies. Cook it until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes paste or chopped tomatoes. Cook it for few minutes. Then, add blended spinach and about ¼ cup of water.
- Add spices – turmeric, coriander powder, and garam masala powder and salt. Let it cook for just few more minutes.
- Let it cook until the water evaporates, and it looks well mixed. Add corn either chopped corn kernels or corn on the cob. ( like the picture)
Tadka/Vaghaar
- Heat some ghee in a small pan, add cumin seeds, as soon as they splutter add red chili powder and sliced garlic and quickly stir it and turn off the heat. Try not to burn the red chili or garlic, it will mess up the taste.
- Serve it warm with naan, jeera rice or parathas with salad or raita for a complete meal.
