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.
Pin this recipe for later!
All recipes are rigorously tested in our Nashville Test Kitchen to ensure they are easy, affordable, and delicious.
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
Cost $5.35 recipe / $1.34 serving
Ingredients
- 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 fresh ginger (grated , $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 (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).
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
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!
This recipe is soooo delicious!
Stuff I added:
4 bone-in skin on chicken thighs, a 300g block of paneer, a bit of chicken stock because I had a little left, and an extra can of coconut milk. And probably way too much spinach because I have no idea how much 8oz is and I’m too lazy to convert it haha.
Method:
I cut the meat from the bones and removed the skin (saved in a freezer bag for a future batch of chicken stock). I cubed the thighs and tossed them with some olive oil, salt, turmeric, and cumin. I browned the outside of the chicken in the pan (didn’t cook all the way through) and then transferred to a plate to add back in later. Then I cooked the veggies as normal starting from step 3.
While the veggies started cooking, I heated the coconut milk and started wilting the spinach. I soon realized I did not have enough liquid to add all the spinach so I grabbed another can of coconut milk. Once it was all wilted, I used my immersion blender to blend it pretty finely.
In step 5, I added the chicken at the same time as the tomato and let it simmer for a bit longer because there was more stuff in the pan and a bit more liquid to reduce.
Once I was mostly done and started adding in the coconut/spinach blend, I realized I had way too much green coconut juice. Lol. So I used my meal prep cube things and froze a few cups of the liquid. It will for sure be useful if I want to make this recipe again – but it also occurred to me, I could also use this in a healthy smoothie… right?
Anyway, this was a great recipe and will be doing it again!! Also, the advice at the end to wait to add salt to taste was genius – I found it didn’t need much to make the flavours stand out. (I know this is common advice, but I usually just add the recommended amount of salt without thinking.)
– Laura Bee
Oh, my! This is so delicious. Once again, I have to thank Beth for demystifying yet another Indian recipe! I eat some version of Saag every time we go out for Indian. When I learn to cook new Indian recipes, my husband says I “ruined” going out for Indian. This definitely did that. I added Chick Peas, but see us keeping this in frequent rotation with different additions. I’m adding diced potatoes to the leftovers tomorrow. Beth, thanks again for an incredibly easy and savory recipe!
I ADORE this recipe! If I wanted to use cumin seeds, what would the ratio be compared to the ground cumin?
Typically, you would do 1 tbsp seeds for every 1 tsp of ground, so here you would likely want to do 2 tbsp cumin seeds. Just keep in mind that we haven’t actually tried it like that so you might want to taste as you go!
Made this a while ago and it’s delicious!
We absolutely LOVE this recipe, been making it for years! It’s delicious even if you’re generally not a big spinach fan, like me. One of my favorite ways to eat this is with soft boiled eggs – it makes an excellent savory breakfast!
I’m not one to comment on anything- much less a recipe blog, but this Saag recipe is so good!
I’ve referred to this recipe more than ten times, and have follow it to a tee. It’s now memorized 😂. It always turns out so good!
The other night I hosted a dinner party at my home featuring an old butter chicken recipe I acquired from an Indian friend of mine (I’m a white dude) and I served this along side with Basmati rice, and homemade naan. In attendance were 2 Indian guests, and they overly complemented on the Saag. Thanks for this!
I had this dish 50 years ago in a quality Indian restaurant, ever since I tried making or ordering it in restaurants. unfortunately not the same lovely taste I had that first time. This recipe is it, I travelled in time 50 years with a can of coconut cream and a teaspoon of garam masala. Thanks Beth.
My family really enjoyed this recipe—definitely a keeper!
Here are the small tweaks I made:
1. I was generous with the spices but only used those listed in the recipe, substituting Kashmiri pepper (india spice, not overly hot, adds good color) for cayenne.
2. Instead of whole chopped tomatoes and water, I used 1/4 cup of chopped tomatoes with their juice to simulate the same effect.
3. I sautéed the onion and followed all the steps in step 3 first. Once that was done, I added the coconut milk and chopped spinach, cooking it just below a boil until the spinach wilted and the flavors mingled.
I didn’t blend the mixture and didn’t feel it was necessary, even if using whole spinach, unless that’s your preference. At the end, I added some homemade pan-fried paneer (with ghee and garlic powder) because I had some on hand. However, it would be just as delicious without it or with crumbled paneer added in.
I made this recipe for my husband and myself, only with less ginger (maybe half a tbsp) because it’s all I had left. I thought the kids would prefer their pasta but they got curious and loved it. My 5 year old even ate the leftover spinach the next day. So, this is a big win and I’m taking it in our meal rotation.
I have made this dish at least 6 times and I absolutely love it! It’s so easy, fast, and uses ingredients I always have on hand. Anytime I have a bag of greens I need to use (I have used spinach, kale, and collard greens) I immediately go to this recipe. The last time I made it, I added chickpeas for a bit more protein and was not disappointed. Thanks for this awesome recipe!!
I added paneer and it’s SOO GOOD!!
This was delicious. I made it with canned coconut milk because that’s what I had on hand. Next time will try evaporated milk. Be careful not to pulse too much if you like texture, which I do prefer, will pulse less next time but I don’t purée thank goodness. Just amazing and so easy!
Try it as written, worth the try. Certain classics justify their namesake, and most often no need to tweak.
The recipe is good in flavor, but with far too much liquid. The consistency is like soup if you use the recommended amount of coconut milk. I didn’t even add water and it was still like soup.
Did you use boxed coconut milk, like what they sell as a dairy milk substitute? That’s much more watery than full-fat canned coconut milk.
Excellent! I used the last collards, swiss chard, kale, and bok choy of the season, and fresh ginger, garlic, and onion, and added bell pepper that needed to be used. Then I used Maesri canned panang curry paste. Now the issue is that I don’t know that it’s going to make it to dinner time… 🤷🏼♂️ DEFINITELY making this again!!
You know in theory I was like ya, that should turn out great..but sometimes these vegan “situations” end up like..meh..nah I don’t think so.
Not this dish though!! it taaastes amazing, super easy to put together..and tastes so complex yet comforting. Great recipe, thanks!