We’ve been following the Deep Indian Kitchen brand for quite a while now. Yes, we’re aware that the brand name is fairly new, but you might not realize that this is actually a rebranding of the Tandoor Chef frozen food line, which we were huge fans of back in the day.
So we’re pretty excited to check out the Deep Indian Kitchen Spinach Paneer. This looks like a more appetizing version of the Tandoor Chef Palak (Saag) Paneer, which we thought looked like sponges floating in a swamp, though it actually tasted alright. The food experts at Deep Indian Kitchen gave this a few tweaks, since then, which means it has the potential to be pretty amazing.
Heating this meal is super easy. Pop it in the microwave for two minutes, give it a quick stir, then pop it back in for two more. That’s about as easy as it gets.
One huge improvement over the Tandoor Chef version is the addition of turmeric rice. This is something that was bafflingly missing from the previous version, and we’re really happy that they finally addressed that. In fact, the addition of rice helps to mitigate our only real complaint about this dish: The spinach portion is a bit too watery, which you can probably see in the image below. If you mix the spinach and rice, though, you end up with a really nice consistency.
Plus, the flavors end up mixing quite well. The spinach and rice feel a bit bland on their own, but when mixed together, they become a powerhouse of flavor. You should definitely mix them rather than trying to eat them separately.
Like before, we did find the paneer cheese to be a little bit rubbery, but we don’t think it’s as bad as it used to be. The consistency isn’t perfect, but it’s hardly worth complaining about. We didn’t find it to be a dealbreaker, and we do think it’s an improvement over the previous version of this meal.
So is this a spicy meal? Well, sort of. It’s definitely got some kick to it, but it’s a subtler kick than you might be hoping for if you’re looking to really go all-out with the spice. We’re comfortable calling this a mild spice level.
This actually has fewer calories than the previous version. Keep in mind that the Tandoor Chef offering considered half the tray to be a serving, which brought the full calorie count of a tray to be 480 calories. This one has 400, which isn’t super diet-friendly, but it’s definitely more appealing to dieters than the previous version. And, at 760 mg of sodium, this has half the sodium content of its predecessor.
The Deep Indian Kitchen Spinach Paneer is a much-improved version of the Tandoor Chef Palak (Saag) Paneer. This has a slightly better paneer, a lower calorie count, less sodium, and the addition of rice, which really brings up the overall quality of the meal. While this isn’t the best item in the Deep line (we’re partial to their Chicken Curry as well as their naan bread pizzas), it’s still a very tasty one that we can see ourselves returning to occasionally.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, and cooking instructions for this Deep Indian Kitchen frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
