My Palak Paneer Recipe

I love to cook. Love it. Don't know how this happened because I fought my mother's efforts to teach me cooking as a child. It must have been my destiny. My recipe surfing around the blogosphere lead me to Sweetnicks Blog. She has a day dedicated to recipes that include antioxidant rich foods, fruits, and vegatables, perfect for a triathlete like myself. Needlesstosay, I've taken more than one recipe from her weekly ARF/5-a-day posts. It's time to give back.

This is my version of the Indian dish Palak Paneer. The original recipe was found on http://www.food-india.com/. I call it My Palak Paneer because some of the traditional ingredients, like paneer, were substituted because they are hard to find in Florida. But I've found a way to put it together. It wins rave review at parties as "that crazy spinach dip". :)

1 1lb container low fat cottage cheese
2 packages of frozen spinach
1 small onion (chopped)
1 small tomato (chopped)
2 tablespoon half-n-half or low fat sour cream
2 tablespoon garam masala powder (a spice blend you can make from scratch but some asian markets carry it, McCormick spices offer it's own version)
1 tablespoon cumin powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoon peanut oil (ghee is best if you can find it)

Salt to taste

Preparation
Heat oil. Sauté onion until light golden brown.
Add spinach and cook until it turns into a paste. It's hard to describe but the juice that comes off the spinach will go from clear to cloudy green. Cloudy green means it's ready. This takes longer than you think.
Add sour cream, spices and tomatoes. Cook for few minutes.
Add cottage cheese to spinach. Cook for about 10 minutes in medium heat until creamy.
Serve hot with rice or indian bread. I like the papadoms you can make in the microwave.

Buen provecho!