The $4.99 Patel Brothers Freezer Find I Eat Multiple Times a Week

I often joke that I had to leave Vermont a decade ago because of its lack of bulgogi. But it’s just as accurate to say that I needed an Indian grocery in my life. In Houston, I found exactly that when I started shopping at Patel Brothers in the city’s Mahatma Gandhi District. The Indian supermarket, which now has more than 50 locations around the United States, boasts everything I need to eat the Indian food that I love at home.

Often, that means buying spice mixes (masalas) to prepare meals almost from scratch. But when I need a quick lunch or dinner that’s ready in less than 10 minutes, I’ve had the same go-to for six years. My freezer is always stocked with multiples of the Spinach Paneer meal from Deep Indian Kitchen.

Why I Love Deep Indian Kitchen’s Palak Paneer

When I worked in an office, I would keep the vibrant blue boxes in the freezer there. Now that I’m a full-time freelance writer, the meal has become even more ingrained in my routine. I pull one out when I’m on deadline and don’t have time to cook, or when my husband isn’t hungry but I am.

Palak paneer, as labeled at Patel Brothers, is a vegetarian stew with a sauce made from blended spinach, cream, and a variety of aromatics and spices, including green chile, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. Within the jade-hued puree, you’ll find cubes of paneer, a fresh Indian cheese with a creamy flavor and a bouncy texture. The cheese isn’t hard to make yourself with just whole milk, lemon juice, and salt, but I prefer Deep’s version to my own.

At most grocery stores, the meal comes with yellow-tinged turmeric rice, dotted with cumin seeds. It’s also often relatively expensive. At the Safeway where I used to buy it after I left Houston, it retails for more than $7. But at my local Patel Brothers in Ashburn, Virginia, it’s just $4.99. However, the meal consists only of palak paneer, with no rice.

But that’s no problem for me. I prefer to eat it with a side of bread anyway. I’m never without at least one bag of Mirch Masala Malaysian-Style Paratha, which I purchase at the Lotte Plaza grocery store just around the corner from Patel Brothers. If I’m buying frozen bread at Patel Brothers, I stick to Deep Foods for everything from naan to a $2.99 bag of paneer paratha, which combines the shredded cheese with onions, coriander, and chiles in the center of the bread.

I may be a food critic, but I’m not afraid to admit that I favor the elegant balance of flavors of Deep’s palak paneer over most of the versions that I try at restaurants. Not bad for a meal that takes four minutes to microwave.

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