This Indian Style Creamed Spinach is a bit like Palak Paneer, but without the paneer. …because my homemade paneer didn’t turn out. 😅 But that’s okay! The creamy spiced spinach is absolutely delightful on its own, so it’s still totally worth sharing. It’s amazing for dipping bread (preferably naan), spooning over rice, or using as a base for a more complete meal.
Make it Dairy-free or with Dairy
When I originally posted this recipe seven years ago I made it with evaporated milk. Since that time I’ve discovered how incredibly amazing coconut is with garam masala, so this time around I swapped out the evaporated milk for coconut milk. That also happens to make this recipe vegan and friendly to those who can’t consume dairy. If you prefer the dairy version, simply use one cup evaporated milk in place of the coconut milk.
Can I Use Light Coconut Milk?
Yes, you can use light coconut milk in place of the full-fat coconut milk, but the end result will be slightly less thick. I do not suggest using coconut milk sold in a carton, the type meant to be used as a dairy milk substitute. It will be far too watery for this recipe.
What to Serve with Indian Creamed Spinach
As mentioned in the intro, this Indian style creamed spinach makes a great side dish. You can serve it with dishes like Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala, Cauliflower and Chickpea Masala, or Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Lentils. Or, you can add a couple more ingredients into your creamed spinach and make that your main dish. Consider adding cubed tofu, a can of chickpeas, or a diced potato or two.
Is this Creamed Spinach Spicy?
This recipe does have a little heat, thanks to a ¼ tsp cayenne pepper. If you prefer a mild creamed spinach, simply skip the cayenne pepper.
Is there a Substitute for the Garam Masala?
If you can’t find Garam Masala in a store near you, you can substitute it with curry powder. Or, try your hand at making a homemade garam masala.
Indian Style Creamed Spinach
Servings 4 about 1 cup eachIngredients
- 1 13.5oz. can full-fat coconut milk ($1.79)
- 8 oz. fresh spinach ($1.29)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger ($0.30)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 2 tsp ground cumin ($0.20)
- 1 tsp garam masala ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric ($0.05)
- 1/4¼ tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 1 large tomato ($0.97)
- 1/4 cup water ($0.00)
- 3/4 tsp salt (or to taste) ($0.03)
Instructions
- Add the coconut milk and spinach to a large pot. Stir and cook over medium heat until the coconut milk is warmed through and has wilted the spinach. Remove from the heat as soon as the spinach has wilted to avoid over cooking the spinach.
- Transfer the warm coconut milk and spinach to a blender and pulse until the spinach is in small pieces (you can choose to blend until smooth, if you prefer). Set this mixture aside.
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and grate the ginger. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger to a large skillet along with the olive oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft (about 5 minutes).
- Add the cumin, garam masala, turmeric, and cayenne to the skillet. Stir and cook the spices with the onion, garlic, and ginger for about two minutes more.
- Dice the tomato and add it to the skillet along with about 1/4 cup water. Stir and cook the tomato with the other ingredients, dissolving any browned bits off the bottom of the skillet, until the tomato has broken down (5-8 minutes).
- Finally, add the coconut and spinach mixture to the skillet and stir to combine. Allow the mixture to heat through, stirring occasionally.
- Taste the creamed spinach and add salt to taste. Start with 1/4 tsp, adding more as needed until the flavors pop (I added 3/4 tsp).
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Indian Creamed Spinach – Step By Step Photos
Start by pouring one 13.5 oz. can of full-fat coconut milk into a soup pot.
Add 8 oz. of fresh spinach to the coconut milk. Stir and cook over medium heat just until the spinach has wilted (this should only take about five minutes). Do not over cook the spinach here. It should still be bright green in color.
Transfer the warm coconut milk and spinach to a blender and pulse until the spinach is in small pieces. You can blend until smooth if you prefer, but I like a little texture in mine. Set this mixture aside.
Dice one yellow onion, mince two cloves of garlic, and grate about 1 Tbsp fresh ginger. Add all three to a skillet along with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger over medium heat until the onions are soft (about 5 minutes).
Once the onions are soft, add 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garam masala, ½ tsp turmeric, and ¼ tsp cayenne pepper to the skillet. Stir and cook the spices with the onion, garlic, and ginger for about 2 minutes more.
Dice one tomato and add it to the skillet along with about ¼ cup water. Stir and cook the tomato with the other ingredients, dissolving any browned bits off the bottom of the skillet, until the tomatoes have broken down (5-8 minutes).
Finally, pour the coconut and spinach mixture into the skillet and stir to combine.
Allow the mixture to heat through, stirring occasionally. Once hot, give it a taste and add salt as needed. I added about ¾ tsp. I suggest starting with ¼ tsp and adding more to your liking. Adding the correct amount of salt will help the flavors pop.
Serve hot with some bread for dipping!
Tried a bit of a variation on this, because I didn’t have any spinach, but had a plethora of zucchini (it is summer, after all!). I grated about 10-11 oz of zucchini (3 medium-ish squash) on a box grater, and instead of cooking them separately, I added them to the sauce at the end of the cooking (at the same time as the evaporated milk). It turned out wonderfully! The spices in the recipe are great!
This was so delicious! I didn’t have any evaporated milk on hand, so I used whole milk and it was fantastic!
I’m currently making this again with the coconut lentils and naan. Can’t wait!
Side note – do you typically use evaporated milk? That’s not something I usually use and I’m not familiar with where I should/could be using. Would love any input!
Thanks for these fabulous recipes! Looking forward to trying out more!
I really don’t use it a lot, but in many cases you can use it in place of higher fat milk for a creamy flavor with less added fat. :)
This was so delicious!! Everyone loved it
Made this along with the coconut lentils, and it was SO good! I was going to make naan bread to accompany it, but had leftover burritos. So I chopped the burritos up and toasted them with a little olive oil and lime and used them as dipping “crackers.” Absolutely fabulous and so much flavour!
Such a fantastic recipe! I made it vegan by using about 1 C. of coconut milk and it turned out really good. It was devoured by all.
First of all, totally in love with your site. The recipes are all so simple and delicious and I always have most of the ingredients on hand :)
For this recipe, is there a way around blending the spinach? I don’t currently have a blender or processor.
Maybe chopping the spinach before boiling?
Hmm, you could chop it I suppose, although that might make it difficult to drain. You could just leave the leaves whole and have the texture be more like an American creamed spinach. :)
I used frozen spinach which typically comes slightly chopped, stuck it in the microwave to defrost, stirred in the sugar and added some water. It’s really convenient and saves having to use a blender.
I made this tonight with some leftover indian food. I like to use frozen spinach for dishes like this as it saves both money and time and doesn’t lose any nutrition. It was delicious! I was serving this with some indian food that was a little too spicy so I left out the cayenne all together and it was perfect. I also used half and half instead of evaporated milk. YUM.
Just cooked this, together with the Quick Curried Chickpeas and Coconut Lentils, for my mum and her cousin. Second helpings and clean plates all around! Super delicious!
I used frozen chopped spinach instead of fresh (putting it straight in to the pot, adding no extra water), and half-and-half/half cream instead of the evaporated milk. Heeded the warning about the cayenne pepper and only used about 1/4 tsp, but will probably chuck the whole lot in next time.
Such a nice dish (as was the others). I’m looking forward to the left overs! :)
Cooked! It just tasted so good :)
I love Indian food but some of the dishes can be quite fattening so I was looking for a recipe with vegetables. This recipe turned out very good and everyone in my family loved it! To make it even less fattening, I substituted the evaporated milk with fat free Greek yogurt. It tasted very good. I also used half of a hot pepper in the recipe instead of cayenne pepper.
Thank you!
This was good but extremely spicy. Maybe there should be a warning on the use of Cayenne. :)
Ah yes, I put a warning above the first picture, but it looks like when I moved the website from its old home to the new one, it changed it from bright red back to black, so it’s not so noticeable! :) I’ll go fix that.
I made this last weekend, planning to have it with a ground chicken version of your curry beef with peas and naan (since ground chicken was on sale for $3/pound). Thanks to a little too much multitasking, I cooked the spinach too long, and when I pureed it and added it to the pan…it looked like a Muppet had an accident with a blender.
I thought it was ruined, but it tasted great, and I realized it would make a great sauce. I cooked the ground chicken with more of the spices I used with this, then added it and some peas to the spinach. It was a great sagwala-like dish! This happy accident will be something I make again, even though I also want to give the original recipe another try.
Delicious! I paired it with your daal nirvana recipe and scooped them with some whole wheat pita bread (I was too lazy to make naan but will eventually for sure!). Not too spicy for me but I love my spices.
I’ve made this recipe a ton of times before, but tonight when I went to make it, there were no onions! And I really didn’t want to go to the store.
I ended up tossing 2 diced potatoes with oil & curry and roasting them, to try and replace the onion. Didn’t work, but-
The spinach mix + evaporated milk mix was pretty soupy without the onion, so I just dumped everything over a bed of rice to help soak it up.
It was fantastic.
I definitely recommend adding the curry potatoes.
Don’t mind the other posters, this dish is not too spicy. It’s Indian, many dishes from the sub-continent are _far_ spicier. Great recipe.