Palak Paneer makes my head hurt!

Factual Questions
1

Indian food fans/chefs:
I looooove palak paneer. It’s the dish I use to judge how good an Indian restaurant is. However, the next day I often wake up with a headache. This has happened with three different restaurants and one brand of prepared frozen dinner. What could possibly be causing this?

I have no known allergies, though I am a bit sensitive to MSG. I can’t imagine MSG is used in Indian restaurants, or is it? What other spices could cause this?

BTW, no, I am not washing it down with half a dozen Kingfishers :slight_smile:

Thanks,
capn

2

For the uninitiated, (Palak) (Paneer) is (Spinach) (Cottage Cheese).

And here are some recipes:

http://www.indianchild.com/palak_paneer_recipe.htm

http://www.recipedelights.com/recipes/vegdishes/PalakPaneer.htm

http://www.tamtree.com/palak.htm

I cannot answer your question, but perhaps this information will aid those who can.

3

Do you have any sensitivity to chile peppers?

Are you lactose intolerant?

Do you have pollen allergies or asthma?

It is highly unlikely that all three restaurants are using MSG, although there is a slight-to-zero chance that the pre-packaged recipe might.

After examining all of the recipes, I do not see any real stand-outs in terms of food ingredients that people are usually sensitive to.

4

Do you eat lots of spinach and/or curd cheese during any other occasions? Perhaps, as Zenster implies, you may have a slight lactose intolerance. If you’re not used to paneer (which, as I recall, has a higher concentration of lactose than your typical dairy product, owing to the way it’s made) and perhaps ghee (clarified butter, which I’d certainly be including in sag paneer), that could affect you.

(An aside to home chefs: Sag paneer is a tasty, simple and cheap dish to make. Well worth a try!)

5

Funny thread title. Nothing else to add, sorry. Maybe the cottage cheese was a bit off?

6

gb, I strongly doubt that all three restaurants and the frozen food producer were uniformly serving up tainted cottage cheese. Even if all of them used the same dairy supplier, continued production of subpar paneer would have caught up to that producer rather quickly.

7

Zenster -

No, AFAIK I have no food allergies or intolernaces, but I will start paying attention to the dairy thing. Does it manifest itself as headaches? I would assume it would be more of an intenstinal thing. I’ve never had really smooth digestion, maybe dairy IS the issue.

I can’t imagine giving up dairy products. I love cheese!

Thanks, I’ll look into the lactose thing.

capn

8

capnfutile, consider preceeding your next meal of paneer with a dose of Lactaid™ (lactose digestion enzyme). It would be a low cost experiment that might overcome your entire problem in one single step. Be sure to eat only the same things that induced your discomfort in the first place. Most definitely avoid those half-dozen Kingfishers when you try this! [grin]