Spinach Surprise- Pasta with Spinach and Paneer

Spinach surprise is an Italian pasta dish. I have given an Indian twist to this recipe by adding our cheese that is Paneer. This is a healthier version of pasta as white sauce is prepared using whole wheat flour. This is an easy dish to prepare and also yummy method to introduce spinach to picky eaters. Spinach surprise is a nutritionally rich dish as it contains all the main food groups such as carbohydrate, protein and fat along with minerals. Now let’s learn to prepare this dish, shall we?

Ingredients:

LARGE Spinach Leaves – 20
Breadcrumbs – 1 bowl
Cheese – grated (as you wish)

Filling:
Paneer – 200 grams, grated
Onion – 1 small (chopped)
Green Chilli – 2, minced
Chilli flakes  – ½ tsp
Garlic Salt to taste (if you don’t have garlic salt, add chopped garlic and salt)

For Pasta in White Sauce:
Butter – 2 tbsp
whole wheat flour – 2 Tbsp
Milk – 2 cups
Garlic Salt

Pizza seasoning
Chilli flakes
cooked pasta – 1 bowl.

Method:

First layer:

1. Mix grated paneer, chopped onion, minced green chilli along with chilli flakes and garlic salt.

2. Clean spinach leaves, take one spinach leaf and add paneer filling and fold like a pocket. Keep this spinach pockets in the greased backing dish. Prepare spinach pockets using reaming spinach leaves. This forms the first layer of the dish.

Second layer:

1. Prepare white sauce by taking butter in a pan. To this add wheat flour and fry till you get nice aroma. To this add milk along with garlic salt, pizza seasoning and chilli flakes to taste.
2. To this white sauce add cooked pasta and mix nicely. Pour this pasta over our first layer.

Third layer:

1. Mix bread crumbs with grated cheese and spread over second layer.
2. Now bake in pre heated oven at 180C till cheese melts and top layer becomes golden brown in color.
3. Serve hot spinach surprise with masala garlic bread or plain garlic bread.