North Indian style one pot soft paneer and peas curry recipe packed full of spices and flavor. Pair it with hot steamed cumin rice or butter naan.
Sometimes I find it hard to be a vegetarian in a foreign country like here (Canada). In India, Being a vegetarian is easy and we have so many options. It’s like you can have delicious food and still be a vegetarian. Here, I can be a vegan and may be will have options or I should eat meat. I am a vegetarian and not a vegan. I don’t eat eggs and I need my cheese and curd and honey! So when I eat out, its hard to explain this and they find it complicated to understand. I end up saying
Anything with paneer is a definite win. The texture of paneer is similar to Greek feta/cottage cheese, which is prepared in a similar manner. I used the tin baby corn instead of boiling some. I have seen that paneer a part of most Indian restaurants menu. This goes well with steamed rice, Pulao, naan or roti. Paneer can be replaced with tofu also. Don’t add lots of cashews to make it rich, it will spoil the originality of the taste. I cut my paneer in this manner, but you can always cut in the way you fancy. This is a spicy curry. If you want it dry, leave it for another five to ten minutes to make it a roast.
This recipe taste great with veg fried rice, ghee rice or kerala parotta, restaurant style vegetable biryani or butter naan.
Vegan note: Replace paneer with tofu. Use coconut milk instead of cream and yogurt.
I have collection of paneer & tofu recipes collection with all my paneer tofu recipes that you should look at.
Other favorite Paneer Recipes: Paneer Makhanwala, Paneer peas masala, Palak Paneer, Paneer sandwich.
- • • Butter – 1 tbsp
- • • Paneer - 250gm, cut into cubes (or any shape you fancy
- • • Oil – 3 tbsp
- • • Onion - 1 cup, sliced thinly
- • • Tomato - 1 cup, roughly sliced
- • • Ginger – 2 inches, chopped finely
- • • Garlic - 6, chopped finely
- • • Green Chillies – 3, finely chopped
- • • Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
- • • Chili powder - 1 tbsp
- • • Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
- • • Pepper powder – 1 tsp
- • • Peas (used cooked and frozen) – 1 cup
- • • Salt - as needed
- • • Dry fenugreek leaves (methi dry leaves) – 2 tsp
- • • Sugar – ½ tsp
- • • Yogurt - 1 tbsp
- • • cooking cream - 1 tbsp
- • • Amchur powder/ Mango powder – ½ tsp
- • • Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp, finely chopped
- Heat the butter in a pan, add the cubed paneer, wait till gets brown remove and set aside. Take some cold water in a cup; add the fried paneer cubes to it. Set aside, this way it will help the paneer not to get chewy or hard.
- In a pan, heat oil, add cumin seeds, add onion, salt and sauté till golden brown. Then add ginger, garlic and sauté for a minute.
- Now add tomato and fry till its mushy and raw smell leaves. Add the turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder, anchor powder, dry fenugreek leaves and sauté well. Keep it to low medium and wait till the oil oozes out.
- Add yogurt , peas and ½ cup of water. Mix well, Close the lid and wait for 2 mins till it gets mixed up.
- Now add paneer and stir well till the paneer is well blended with the spices.
- It will take around ten minutes for it to cook and blend well. Don’t add more water, it may make it rubbery.
- Now add the cream, sugar, amchur powder, powdered pepper fennel powder and sauté for two minutes.
- Add chopped coriander leaves, squeeze some lime and switch it off.