Collard & Cottage Cheese Curry
The past two weeks have been an absolute roller-coaster for me. I wont bore y’all with the craziness at work but I do want to talk about the wonderful weekend that I had with a very dear friend of mine in Houston. This very trip also turned out to be the inspiration for this week’s recipe; a delectable Collard and Cottage Cheese Curry. This is my take on the popular “Palak Paneer” but done with an american staple “Collard Greens”.
The few friendships that I form usually tend to be long-lasting. One such friend was a roomie of mine when I was in graduate school in South Carolina. After graduation we have kept in touch quiet often but haven’t had too many chances to meet especially in the past 3 years. That chance came when he called me about 3 weeks ago to tell me that he was coming to Houston for a conference.
We met at the NASA space center (Isn’t that cool!!!) and instantly a lot of fond memories came flooding back. It seemed as if my wife was the only one taking in the sights and sounds at the space center (LAUGHS!!!). Later with our bellies full with Houston’s finest tacos we kept on yapping until it was time to leave.
This trip also turned out to be the inspiration for this recipe which came from the fact that the two of us spent a great deal of time in the south (Georgia, Carolinas) before moving on. So I wanted to make a southern ingredient the star of this recipe. If you think of the south then one of the things that instantly comes to mind is “COLLARDS”. I decided to make a curry out of it by taking inspiration from the popular Indian delicacy “PALAK PANEER”. It is a rich, creamy curry made with pureed spinach and cottage cheese and delicately seasoned with spices. For this dish I simply replaced the spinach with collards to make a Collard and Cottage Cheese Curry.
Lets begin with the star of the dish “COLLARD GREENS”. Blanch collard leaves in boiling water for 2 minutes. Strain the leaves and preserve the water. Immediately put the leaves in cold water so that they stop cooking and preserve their color. Squeeze out the water and puree in a food processor until smooth.
Now we are ready to make the curry… I know!!! It is that easy….
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add cumin seeds and when they start popping add onions and saute until translucent. Then add ginger garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes away. Mix in the tomato puree and the dry spices; coriander powder, turmeric, red chili powder and garam masala. Finally drizzle in the collard puree and stir well. Add water as desired. Cover and simmer on low heat until it bubbles. Add paneer and simmer till paneer is cooked. Season with salt.
Serve hot.
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Collard & Cottage Cheese Curry
Ingredients
- 1 bag Collard Green Leaves
- 340 gm Cottage Cheese/Paneer Cubed
- 1 small Onion chopped
- 2 cup Tomato Puree
- 2 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 3 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 2 tsp Red Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- Salt as per taste
Instructions
- Blanch collard leaves in boiling water for 2 minutes. Strain the leaves and preserve the water. Put the leaves in cold water to stop cooking. Puree the leaves in a food processor until smooth.
- Add cumin seeds and when they start popping add onions and saute until translucent. Then add ginger garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes away.
- Add tomato puree, coriander powder, turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala, and mix.
- Drizzle in the collard puree and stir well. Add water as desired. Cover and simmer on low heat until it bubbles.
- Add paneer and stir gently. Simmer till paneer is soft.
- Season with salt. Serve hot.
Can I replace onions by something? I really want to try making the dish, but I am allergic to onions
If you are not allergic to them then shallots would have been a good replacement. Otherwise you could skip them altogether..
It looks great! And the ingredients are not very complicated. I will try making this dish <3
Thanks. Let me know how it turns out.. 🙂
Delicious. Can’t take my eyes off the bowl. Yummmy 🙂
Thanks Puja..
Yay for great friendships and yummy curries 😉 This one looks awesome and I love the addition of collards!
Great friendships and yummy curries… Now that is the perfect recipe for a happy life!!! Isn’t it Megan????
This sounds fantastic, Rahul! I love how you brought together two very different cooking influences to make something extra special 🙂 So glad you were able to get together with your friend, sounds like a great day!
Thanks Stephanie. To be honest this is the kind of food I love to cook. Lucky for me that it worked this time.. 🙂 As for my day then all I can say is that it was fantastic..
Have you ever cooked with Swiss chard? Bet you’d love it — it’d work in this dish. Although collards are wonderful, so why wouldn’t you want to use those! Good stuff — thanks.
What a terrific idea John?? I have cooked with Swiss chard but never thought about using it in a curry like this.. As for why I used collards then I firmly believe in the saying “A happy wife equals happy life”. Wifey dear loves collards so naturally I used them to make this dish.. 🙂
Wow rahul, its great that you visited nasa space centre. I could visualize the feel and experience. Awesome. Curry looks absolutely deliciuos
It was a pretty cool experience Smitha, being in the place where they placed the first man on the moon.. 🙂
This is so great! I could eat paneer every day so I’ll have to try this at home soon!
You would definitely love this Karrie.. 🙂
This looks delicious! I like how you tied fond memories with an old friend into this recipe, so creative.
When I came to the US most of our initial years were spent in the southern states. So it was an easy connection to make..
That collard puree gravy sounds really great! Bet the sauce would work really well with tofu or sweet potato too.
You got me curious by your idea Angie.. 🙂 Now I am definitely going to try with both the tofu and sweet potato.