Paneer Butter Masala | Indian Paneer Recipe

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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Paneer Butter Masala

Swaadista

A delicious, mildly spicy paneer side dish made with butter-sautéed paneer, then simmered in a freshly made onion-tomato-spices base until the paneer and the gravy comes together.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Servings 4 people

Equipment

• Cooking pan with lid
• Mixer grinder

Ingredients

  

For the masala paste

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2-3 cloves
• ¼ inch cinnamon
• 3 green cardamoms
• 1 medium red onion chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes chopped
• 4 dried red chilies Byadagi, for color
• 2 green chilies slit
• 1 tbsp cashews soaked in water for 10 minutes and drained
• 50 ml water

Others

• 4 tbsp butter unsalted
• 400 gm paneer cut into ¾-inch cubes
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• ½ tsp sugar
• cilantro chopped
• water
• salt to taste

Instructions

 

Making the masala

• Warm the oil in a medium pan.
  2 tbsp sunflower oil
• Add the below ingredients into it and sauté for 10 seconds.
  2-3 cloves, ¼ inch cinnamon, 3 green cardamoms, 4 dried red chilies
• Add onion and green chilies, sauté until onion translucent. Then add tomatoes and cook them on low heat, covered, until soft and mushy. Allow these ingredients to cool down completely.
  1 medium red onion, 2 green chilies, 2 medium tomatoes
• Transfer the cooled ingredients into the mixer jar, add cashews into it and make a fine paste by adding water.
  1 tbsp cashews, 50 ml water

Making paneer butter masala

• Warm butter in the pan on medium heat.
  4 tbsp butter
• Add and fry paneer cubes for a minute. Then remove them onto a plate.
  400 gm paneer
• Into the same pan, add ginger-garlic paste and sauté until the raw smell goes away.
  1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• Add the ground masala paste into the pan, add salt to taste, sauté it on low heat for 2 minutes. Then pour water to adjust the consistency and cook it covered until you notice the oil separating from the gravy.
  water, salt to taste
• Add sugar and combine. Taste for salt at the point and adjust if necessary.
  ½ tsp sugar
• 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!
  cilantro

Keyword Easy Paneer Recipe, Paneer, Paneer Butter Masala, Paneer Curry