saag paneer | laal chaulai paneer ki bhurji | red amaranth and paneer stir fry

Paneer, eggs and boiled chickpeas in the fridge are the best ingredients to make a nourishing meal in a jiffy. Of course I stock my greens in many ways too so I can cook our meals quickly. Having someone to chop and clean is a great help but then one can always plan a weekend time when all the vegetables can be stocked for the week's use.

I stock my leafy green vegetables in many ways. Some are kept unwashed wrapped in brown paper or cloth bags and they last pretty much the whole week this way. I rinse the greens stored this way and chop before cooking but it does take some time. When I plan ahead and involve my house help I get the greens cleaned, well rinsed and chopped and freeze them in ziplock bags or steam and keep them in airtight containers for a week or so.

Luckily Amaranth leaves of both types, red and greens ones are quite dry in nature and last really well in the fridge even after chopping. I make optimal use of this property of amaranth greens whenever I get a huge bunch from our weekly market.

This time I found a ziplock bag of red amaranth in the freezer that I had froze 3 months ago when I had bought a huge bunch of them.

Now to tell you the truth, amaranth greens were never cooked with paneer in my home but this became a short cut way to make one subzi that includes greens and proteins and cooks in just about 10 minutes. In the mornings when I have to cook lunch box this way of cooking just one subzi suits well. I just pack some rotis and dahi with it and the lunch box meal is complete.

ingredients
(2-3 servings)

400 gm chopped red amaranth leaves (or green if you don't get the red ones)
100 gm red onions sliced thinly
2-3 broken dry red chillies
1 tbsp mustard oil
salt to taste
120 gm paneer cubed

procedure 
Heat mustard oil and tip in the broken red chillies. Let the chillies get aromatic, you can let them burn lightly if you want a smoky flavour. I do the smoking of the chillies for this recipe.

Now add the sliced onions. Fry them till they turn translucent.

Add salt and the chopped amaranth greens. Mix well, cover and cook till the leaves get wilted.

Stir fry for a few minutes, add the cubed paneer and cook covered for a couple of minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature with roti, paratha or millet rotis.

This paneer saag works really well as a sandwich stuffing too.

You can cook this recipe of saag paneer with spinach too.