Palak Paneer

Allergens at a glance

• UsuallyMilkPaneer is cheese; cream, butter or ghee are common too.
• SometimesTree nutsSome restaurants blend in cashew paste for a creamier sauce.
• SometimesGlutenAsafoetida (hing) in the tempering is often cut with wheat flour.
• SometimesMustardMustard oil in some Punjabi kitchens; mustard greens in some saag.

Usually in the standard recipe. Often in many versions. Sometimes in some kitchens, or a cross-contact risk.

Diets

• Vegetarian (lacto): no meat, fish or egg in the standard recipe.
• Not vegan: paneer is dairy, and so is the usual cream, butter or ghee.
• Usually wheat-free by recipe apart from hing, but the bread served with it is wheat.

Recipes change from kitchen to kitchen. If you have an allergy, confirm every ingredient with the restaurant before you order.

What is palak paneer?

Palak paneer is a vegetarian curry of fresh cheese cubes in a thick, bright green sauce of puréed spinach. It's a Punjabi home-style dish that became a fixture of North Indian restaurant menus. Palak means spinach and paneer is a fresh, firm cheese that holds its shape when cooked.

What's in it

• Spinach, blanched and puréed
• Paneer, a fresh cheese made by curdling milk with lemon juice or vinegar
• Onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, green chilli and spices such as cumin and garam masala
• Ghee, butter or oil, and often a swirl of cream
• Sometimes kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) or a pinch of hing (asafoetida)

On many menus outside India, saag paneer is the same dish. In India, saag can mean a mix of greens, including mustard greens (sarson), which tastes sharper.

Allergens and diets

Milk is certain: paneer is cheese, and the cream, butter and ghee add more. It's vegetarian, but not vegan.

Some restaurants blend cashews into the sauce for body, and you can't see them once it's puréed, so ask if you have a tree nut allergy. Coeliac (celiac) diners should ask about hing: powdered asafoetida is often compounded with wheat flour, and it's added to the hot oil at the start of cooking, so it's spread through the whole dish. Rice-based hing exists, so ask to see the tin.

Mustard is the other one to ask about. Some Punjabi kitchens cook in mustard oil, and a saag made with mustard greens comes from the mustard plant. If you avoid mustard, ask what greens and what oil went in.

On the menu

You'll also see "palak" paired with other ingredients: palak aloo (potato), palak chicken or palak gosht (lamb). The sauce and the allergen questions are the same.

Last checked 1 November 2026. Spotted something wrong? Email support@inventum.com.au.