Swaadista

This one’s a people’s favorite!

Paneer butter masala is a mildly spicy paneer side dish made with butter-sautéed paneer, simmered in a freshly made onion-tomato-spices base. Cooking this dish takes roughly 35-40 minutes, making it an ideal weekend prep. However, with meal-prep, you can easily make this on a busy weekday too.

I love eating this with naan mostly, but it tastes great with rotis, chapatis, and flavored rice such as jeera rice and ghee rice too.

Ingredients:

Cooking oil – I have used sunflower oil in this recipe. Vegetable oil or butter are good options too.

Whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom) – Organic and aromatic spices work best. I have used organic spices bought from a local Indian store near me.

Onion – Any kind of onions work, but red onions (that are spicy) are recommended.

Tomatoes – Use the best quality tomatoes for this, it adds so much flavor.

Dried red chili – I have used byagadi red chilies for this, which give a nice reddish-orange color. If you don’t have dried Byadagi red chili(whole), you can add Kashmiri red chili powder directly while cooking.

Green chili – this one’s for the heat and I have used Indian green chili or hari mirch.

Cashews – Use unsalted whole or split cashews.

Butter – Any unsalted butter works well in this.

Paneer – Any good quality store-bought or homemade paneer works well.

Ginger-garlic paste – I like to use a good quality, store-bought ginger-garlic paste. But an instant homemade paste gives a lot of flavors. So if you can make a paste and use it, it’s best.

Sugar – I like to use granulated sugar. Alternatively, you can use jaggery too.

Cilantro – I like to use fresh cilantro/coriander leaves. You can replace it with Kasuri methi too. Although they are not the same, they both give very different yet great flavors.

How do you make paneer butter masala?

• To begin with, sauté cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, dried red chili, green chili, chopped onion, and tomato in sunflower oil on low heat until onions and tomatoes are well cooked. Turn the heat off and allow these ingredients to cool down. Then, transfer these into a mixer jar, add the cashews and a bit of water, and make a fine paste. Keep this aside until used.
• In the same pan, warm butter. Add and sauté the paneer cubes for 2-3 minutes on low heat, then remove them onto a separate plate.
• Add the ginger-garlic paste into the same oil, sauté until the raw smell goes away. Next, add the ground masala paste into the pan, add salt, sauté on low heat for 2 minutes. Pour enough water to adjust the consistency, cook it covered until you notice the oil separating from the gravy. Then, add sugar and combine. Taste for salt at the point and adjust if necessary.
• Transfer the fried paneer into the cooking pan and gently combine. Cook it on low heat, covered, for another 5 minutes or until paneer soft. Garnish with cilantro and serve warm with chapatis, naan, or rotis. Enjoy!

Check out other paneer recipes here: Palak Paneer, Mattar Paneer, Paneer Burji

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