Tofu paneer

When I was a grad student in LA, my friend Ben and I had an Indian themed weekend in Atwater, where he was house-sitting. We went to an Indian grocery in the morning, where we had fried crepes filled with spicy ginger and garlic for lunch. We hit up a Bollywood dance class, where I'm sure we were quite the pretty picture -- Ben, at 6"2, the only guy in a class of women, all gangly limbs, and me, the eternal klutz. But that night, Ben and I cast our clumsiness aside to make a delicious dish of saag paneer.

I could live on saag paneer. Anything that's got cubes of fried cheese, curry, and lots of leafy greens is good in my book. More often than I should, I walk to Clay Pit downtown on my lunch break to pick up a (huge) lunch portion. Unfortunately, despite the presence of spinach, I can't kid myself any longer - saag paneer is not a health dish.

I got the recipe from the latest issue of Vegetarian Times, and because I didn't modify it much I don't have legal permission to republish it here. Basically, it substitutes tofu (browned in cooking spray, but you could use oil) for the paneer, and soy yogurt for the cream. Otherwise, the flavors are all there!

Will I regularly swap my beloved paneer and cream for tofu and soy? Probably not. But, it makes a healthy, tasty work lunch with lots of protein and iron.