Palak Corn Recipe (Curried Spinach & Corn)
Palak corn curry is a rich, saucy dish that’s made with fresh spinach and sweet corn. It is lightly spiced and perfectly creamy, and great to pair with classic Indian sides. This dish is also called as Makai Palak as corn is known as ‘Makai’ and spinach is called ‘Palak’ in the Hindi Language. Here you’ll find step-by-step instructions with photos for making this satisfying palak corn recipe at home.
About Palak Corn
Corn and spinach make for a wonderful combination. Corn Palak is a classic Punjabi recipe that features these two fresh ingredients in one delicious dish. It’s often found at Indian restaurants, as a main or side served with rice and bread.
Cooked spinach (palak) on its own doesn’t have much taste. But it becomes incredibly flavorful when cooked with sweet corn and a vibrant paste of tomatoes, onion, cashews, herbs and spices.
This palak corn recipe is similar to Palak Paneer but creamier and saucier, and made with low fat cream (optional). The end result is a lightly spiced, smooth, delicious and nutritious curry.
The recipe can be made with sweet corn, or the Indian variety of desi corn. If you use canned corn kernels then the recipe comes together quickly as you don’t need to spend time cooking the corn cobs and then removing them.
For the gravy base, I add cashews and melon seeds which not only give a good taste but also helps in thickening the gravy. Feel free to skip them or add almonds in place of cashews and skip the melon seeds altogether.
Kindly note that in the final dish photos, I have blended the spinach to a semi-fine consistency and in the stepwise photos, they are blended to a fine and smooth consistency.
How to make Palak Corn
Prepare Masala Paste
1. Measure, chop and have all the ingredients ready to make the masala paste.
2. In a small grinder or blender, add the following ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons chopped or broken cashews – can use almonds instead
- 1 or 2 chopped green chilies – about 1 teaspoon chopped
- 1 medium sized onion which is roughly chopped – ⅓ cup chopped onions
- 1 medium sized tomato which is roughly chopped – ½ cup chopped tomatoes
- 1 inch ginger which is roughly chopped
- 3 to 4 small to medium garlic cloves (chopped)
- ½ tablespoon magaz (melon seeds) – skip if you do not have
3. Grind or blend to a smooth paste. Add a splash of water if needed while grinding. Set this masala paste aside.
Blanch and Puree Spinach
4. Next, rinse 1 bunch of spinach leaves (palak) very well in fresh water in a colander. Drain the water very well.
5. Boil 4 to 5 cups of water with ½ teaspoon salt. Let the water come to a boil and then immediately switch off the heat.
6. Quickly add the spinach leaves to this hot water.
7. Let the spinach leaves be immersed in the hot water for 2 to 3 minutes.
8. Have a large bowl of ice-cold water ready to blanch the palak. I added 10 to 12 ice cubes in 2 cups of water. You can use chilled water as well.
9. After 2 to 3 minutes, with the help of tongs, remove the spinach and place them in the ice water bowl. Keep the spinach submerged for 2 to 3 minutes.
10. Either drain all of the cold water or pick the spinach leaves with a help of tongs and transfer them to a blender.
11. Blend to a semi-fine or smooth spinach puree, adding very little water only if needed. You should get approximately 2 to 2.5 cups of spinach puree. Set the spinach puree aside.
Cook Sweet Corn (Makai)
12. First steam or boil 2 cups raw corn kernels. I have pressure cooked the corn kernels. Add enough water just to cover the corn kernels while pressure cooking them.
You can also steam them in a pressure cooker or in an Instant Pot. Alternatively you can steam or boil 2 medium corn cobs for 4 to 5 whistles. Let them cool and then remove the corn kernels with a knife.
Opt to use canned cooked corn kernels if you are not using the raw ones.
13. Drain all the water from the boiled corn kernels and then set them aside.
14. Have all of the ingredients ready to make the palak corn curry.
Sauté Masala
15. Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons oil or butter or ghee in a thick bottomed pan. Add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds. Fry them until they crackle, become aromatic and are browned.
16. Now add the ground masala paste. Be careful as the paste will splutter in the oil.
17. Mix very well. Then add 1 pinch turmeric powder, ¼ teaspoon red chili powder, 1 pinch asafoetida and ¼ or ½ teaspoon garam masala powder.
18. Stir and mix the spices well. Cook the masala paste on medium to medium-high heat, stirring often.
19. Continue stirring, until the oil starts to leave the sides of the masala paste. The paste will thicken, become glossy and aromatic.
Make Palak Corn Curry
20. When the masala paste is sauteed very well, then add the spinach puree to the pan.
21. Stir and mix very well.
22. Pour in 1 cup of water or as required depending on the consistency you prefer.
23. Next add salt to taste. Mix well.
24. Reduce the heat and simmer the curry for 6 to 7 minutes on low heat.
25. After 6 to 7 minutes, add the boiled corn kernels.
26. Mix well. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes more to heat the corn kernels through.
27. Whisk or beat ¼ cup cooking cream or light cream or low-fat cream till smooth. Skip the cream if you don’t want to add it.
28. Now add the cream and ½ teaspoon crushed dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi). Omit to add dried fenugreek leaves if you don’t have them.
29. Stir and cook for just a minute or so to thicken.
30. Add ginger julienne (from ½ to 1 inch ginger).
31. Serve the corn palak hot with your favorite Indian sides. It pairs nicely with roti, paratha, naan, steamed rice, ghee rice and cumin rice.
FAQs
What do you serve with palak corn?
Enjoy the curry either on top of or alongside jeera rice or basmati rice. Serve with warm roti, paratha or naan bread.
Can this makai palak recipe be doubled or tripled
Absolutely. Easy double or triple the ingredients to increase the servings from 3 to 4, to 6 to 12.
How do I make this a vegan corn palak recipe?
Simply swap the ¼ cup of cream for 2 tablespoons of coconut cream whisked in right at the end of cooking.
What other ingredients can be swapped in this recipe?
Instead of sweet corn, regular corn or even fresh green peas can be used.
How long will this dish keep well?
Store in a sealed container this palak corn will keep well for 1 to 2 days in the fridge. Reheat in a pan.
Step by Step Photo Guide Above
Ingredients
Main ingredients
- 1 bunch spinach (palak) – yields approx 2 to 2.5 cups spinach puree or 250 grams spinach
- 4 to 5 cups water – for boiling the water and blanching the spinach
- 2 to 3 cups ice cold water or chilled water – for adding the blanched spinach leaves
- 2 cups sweet corn kernels or 2 medium corn cobs or green peas
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 pinch turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- ¼ teaspoon Red Chili Powder or cayenne pepper
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing) – optional
- ¼ or ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- ½ teaspoon dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), crushed
- ¼ cup light cream or cooking cream (20% to 25% low fat cream) – whisked till smooth – optional
- 1 cup water
- 2 to 3 tablespoons oil or butter or ghee
For masala paste
- ⅓ cup chopped onion or 1 medium-sized
- ½ cup chopped tomatoes or 1 medium-sized
- 1 inch ginger – roughly chopped
- 3 to 4 garlic cloves – small to medium sized, chopped
- 1 or 2 green chilies – chopped or 1 teaspoon chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped cashews
- ½ tablespoon melon seeds (magaz) – you can also use watermelon seeds.
For garnish
- ½ to 1 inch ginger – julienne
Instructions
Preparing masala paste
- In a small grinder or blender, add all the ingredients listed under "Masala paste" above.
- Grind or blend to a smooth paste. Add very little water if required while grinding.
- Keep this masala paste aside.
Blanching and making spinach puree
- Rinse the spinach very well in water. Boil water with ½ teaspoon salt. Let the water comes to a boil. Then switch off the flame. Immediately add the spinach leaves to this hot water.
- And let the spinach leaves be immersed in the water for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Drain the water and quickly pour ice water over the spinach or immerse the spinach in ice cold or cold water. Keep for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Drain the ice cold water or remove the blanched spinach leaves with the help of pasta tongs and place them in a blender.
- Blend to a semi-fine or smooth spinach puree adding very little water, if needed. Set aside.
Making Corn Palak
- First steam or boil the corn kernels and keep aside. You can choose to steam the raw corn kernels or corn cobs in a pan or steamer or stovetop pressure cooker or Instant Pot.
- In the step wise instructions above I have detailed the steps to cook corn kernels in a stovetop pressure cooker. You can also use canned corn kernels to cut down on cooking time.
- After you have cooked the corn kernels drain all the water from them and set aside.
- For the cooked corn cobs, let them cool completely. Then carefully remove the corn kernels with a knife.
- Heat oil or butter or ghee in a thick bottomed pan. Fry the cumin first till they crackle, become aromatic and are browned.
- Now add the ground masala paste and mix very well.
- Then add the turmeric powder, red chili powder, asafoetida and garam masala powder.
- Keep on stirring and sautéing the masala, till the oil starts to leave the sides of the paste.
- When you see that the oil has started leaving the sides of the masala paste and its color has changed, the paste has thickened and have become glossy, then add the spinach puree. Mix very well.
- Then pour water and season with salt as required. Simmer the curry for 6 to 7 minutes on a low heat. Later add the boiled corn kernels and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes more.
- Whip or beat cream till smooth in a bowl with a wired whisk or spoon.
- Now add cream and dry fenugreek leaves. Stir and cook further for ½ to 1 minute.
- Garnish with ginger julienne and serve corn palak hot with naan, roti, paratha or jeera rice or steamed rice.
Nutrition
Palak Corn recipe from the archives was first published on February 2014.
This is my go-to palak recipe, along with palak paneer.
Happy to know this palak corn recipe is one of your go-to recipe along with palak paneer. Thank you for sharing.
Another gem from Dassana’s treasure! Very simple too. skipped the nuts and cream..still turned out very well.
thank you adi. glad to know. cream can be skipped easily, but thanks for sharing that nuts can be skipped too. happy cooking.
Hello I love all of your recipes and because of them I never run out of things to make. I just made this one today but without the nuts and cream it was still good
thanks tulsi for sharing this feedback. glad. yes nuts and cream can be skipped.
I made this a couple of days back and it turned out to be amazing.. I sauted Corn on olive oil before adding it to the palak gravy and it gave a nice crunchy taste to the dish.
Thank you for this amazing recipe 🙂
Welcome Supriya. Glad to know the way you made this palak corn recipe.
I did not used the melon seeds and still the corn palak came out very delicious!!!
thanks anubha. good to know this.
Hi ma’am, it didn’t worked for me. I’m jain so I skipped the onions only here in this recipe. I followed every step but the taste was more astringent and smelled so bad like rotten plant.
The sabji turned from green to mehendi color gravy in just few secs. I’m really looking forward for your guidance that where did it went wrong. Thank you mam big follower of yours since 2017.
I am not sure what must have gone wrong, but onions do give a slight sweet taste to the curry. Did you use fresh corn or canned corn? The smell could be due to using frozen corn or canned corns, which has got spoiled. Or it could be due to the cream which is no longer fresh and has become rancid. Both cream and corn can really give awful odours if they have got spoiled.
Hi the reciprocate great.but please don’t off the pictures like in this Palak corn receive. Visuals are more helpfully.
garima, a few recipes do not have pics. slowly i am updating these recipes with pics or videos.
I tried this recipe n it came out very well. My husband who is not a fan of spinach loved this dish. It was so easy to make.
I’m planning to prepare this dish for serving 10 people. Is this dish can b doubled or tripled? Can I prepare masala paste n Palak puree one day in advance?
Welcome Bhawana. Nice to know this. Yes you can double or triple this recipe. Yes you can prepare them in advance.
Beautiful curry! I substituted amchur for watermelon seeds and coconut cream for cream (used what I had)… It was wonderful!
thanks lee for giving positive feedback and for sharing your variation.
This was awesome. i couldn’t believe that i can cook so tasty palak that my 8 yr daughter also praised it and loved the recipe.. thanks a ton
thats nice to know. glad that your daughter liked it.
I have made this recipe number of times. My husband and i both love it like anything. Seriously, it’s amazing..simply loved it..!!
thanks renu for sharing positive feedback. glad to know this.
Made this just now for lunch! Didn’t have melon seeds or cream…but still it tasted delicious. Eating it now with peas pulao (your recipe). Thanks to you, I am becoming a famous cook in my family! 😀
welcome sneha. nice to know this. thanks for sharing positive feedback. happy cooking.
Dassana over the last month I have become a huge fan of you and your recipes. Including this one, they have all turned out extremely tasty. Thank you so much. One general question I have is which variety of tomatoes do you use? In Bangalore we get the sour type – they are a little flat and are called ‘nati’ here, and the ones which are typically used for salads as they are not very sour?
welcome preeti. thanks for sharing positive review on recipes. i don’t use round tomatoes and use the slightly long ones. they are not sour.
Hey I tried palak corn recipe..I took less palak puree..really awesome taste n rich ..
Thank you..I uploaded on my page Rajeshwari’s Delight… Please check thank you
thanks rajeshwari for the feedback. i will check the post in my free time.
What can I use as a substitute for the dairy cream? I’m vegan but I’d really like to make this.
either you skip the cream or add coconut cream. just add 2 tbsp of coconut cream. whisk the coconut cream and then add it right at the end. stir and switch off the flame. you will get coconut taste and flavor this way, but would be still good.
It turned out to be sooooo good using the coconut cream.
I altered the recipe a little, if anyone would like to try. Along with the cumin seeds I fried some black mustard seeds and a few curry leaves. When I simmered the curry I added one whole black dried Persian lime, which gave the sauce a beautiful deep, smokey-sour taste. I also added carrot cubes to the green peas, and nice cubes of fried tofu.
thanks noa for sharing your variation. i am sure it will help other readers who wants to try our new flavors.
this recipe sounds tasty.. though the addition of cashew and charmagaz paste might dull out the colour of the gravy.. to keep d bright green colour i replaced the masala paste with a simple tadka with cumin whole, chopped onion, chopped garlic and choppd green chilli.. and finished d gravy with gud amt of cheese..!
the cashew and melon seeds give a good amount of creaminess and sweetness in the gravy. the tadka you added is very simple yet looks flavorful. and yes cheese does take palak corn combo to a different level.
I hav tried palak paneer, corn palak and rasam. It turned out to be awesome. My hubby relished it. Will try more recipes. Really enjoying trying your recipes.
thanks alpa for sharing positive feedback on recipes.
Great recipe. Skipped the seeds and cream. Tastes awesome!
Keep the good work going!
thanks sneha
No need to add red chilli powder coz that green color change into little greenish brown color…
its not red chili powder. at least the amount in this recipe won’t bring so much change in the color. its turmeric that changes the color.
Mam,I did spinach corn yesterday and the taste was excellent.Thanks!! looking forward to do more receipes for your blog.Good day!!
welcome deepa. keep visiting the blog for more recipes.
Tried this receipe very first time came out very nice thanks for such a nice receipe..
welcome priya
Hi could you suggest a sustitute for watermelon seeds? I’m not sure where to get in the US. Or can you do without it? Thanks
just skip it in the recipe.
Was sceptical to try as there were not many comments for this recipe but all u readers pls try it. This dish is yummy.. great aroma too!
I loved the whole experience of cooking it and eating it. 🙂
thanks karunya for this positive feedback.
Palak and corn thats a nice combo…looks very tempting
thanks sharmilee
Hi..i dont have cream.can u please suggest the substitude for it.
skip the cream.