Mattar Paneer was one of the first dishes I cooked when I had started staying by my own. Its a famous indian recipe with rich taste of spices. Its one of the recipes which most of my friends and colleagues like and appreciate. I use cream in this recipe, which you can replace with yogurt to make it less fattening.
Taste: Hot and spicy with rich flavor of Indian spices.
Serving ideas: Serve as a meal with rice or chapattis.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Servings: serves 2
Ingredients
½ lbs (250 gms) Paneer (cottage cheese)
2 tablespoons Oil
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 small onion
1-tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
2 large tomatoes
¼ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon chilli powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
¾ teaspoon coriander powder
1-teaspoon cumin powder
1 cup peas
1.4 cup heavy cream
2 tabelspoons fresh cilantro
Water as needed
Salt to taste
Directions for Mattar Paneer
Heat oil in a pan and fry paneer (cottage cheese) cubes till they turn golden brown. Place the paneer on a paper towel.
In a separate pan, heat oil (or ghee) and add mustard and cumin seeds, until their color changes and they splutter.
Add chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste and cook till the onion soften and turn golden brown.
Add tomato, salt and sugar and cook till tomatoes soften.
Add the spices; garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Cook until the oil starts separating from the mix.
Add water as required and add the peas. Cook on a medium flame till the peas soften.
Once the consistency is right, add cream and mix the paneer. Let it simmer on medium heat for the paneer to take up the flavors.
Garnish with cilantro.
Tips
To go vegan, you can use coconut oil instead of ghee, cashew cream (1 part raw cashews soaked in water for an hour blended with 1 part water) instead of heavy cream.
To add more flavors to the dish, you can use tomato passata instead.
In case paneer isn’t available where you live, you can use tofu instead.
