Paneer or Indian cottage cheese cooked in thick and creamy onion – tomato based sauce. The sauce is Creamy, buttery, and rich in flavor. The recipe I am sharing is not a regular paneer butter recipe. This is a family favorite dish and whenever I decided to make naan, I make either butter chicken or butter paneer.
Paneer butter, also known as, Butter paneer masala is famous for its silky smooth texture and flavor. The sauce base is onion, tomato and spices accompanied with cream, butter and cashew nut paste. Paneer is cooked in the simmered sauce for few minutes. The best part is its ingredient list. You will find the needed ingredients from any grocery stores.
This is a one pot recipe and will be ready in 30 to 40 minutes. It goes well with Naan Breads, Garlic Naan Bread, Rice and Roti.
What to Use:
Paneer – Also known as Indian cottage cheese. The store bought paneer cheese are usually hard in texture. So it is good to soak it in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes before using it. Other way is to shallow fry the cubed paneer in butter or ghee (clarified butter) for a minute or two on both sides. That is what I did in this recipe. But I have marinated it before frying. It is totally an optional step. You can fry it without even adding any seasonings.
The paneer cubes in Paneer Butter has to be soft. Just like the buttery sauce the paneer also need to melt in you mouth. If overcooked it will become hard and chewy. So make sure that you cook the paneer not more than 5 minutes in total.
Garam Masala – You can easily find garam masala powder in any Indian grocery stores. The masala powder I used is home made. If you have the needed spices then you too can make it at home. All you have to need for this recipe is,
Green cardamom pods – 2 or 3
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
Fennel seeds – ½ tsp
Cloves – 2 or 3
Cinnamon stick – a small ¼ inch piece
Star anise – 1(optional)
Roast all the spices and grind to a fine powder and add in the sauce as required. Or you can splutter all the above listed spices and cook and blend along with onion tomato mixture.
Lime Juice – If you don’t have lime or lemon juice, add more tomatoes to the gravy. Use an addition of 2 or 3 tomatoes for this recipe.
Cashews and Almonds – You can use either cashews or almonds or equal quantities of both. Soak it in warm water for 15 to 30 minutes. Remove skin from almonds.
How to make it Vegan or Diary Free:
Substitute Paneer with firm tofu. For Butter and cream you can use vegan substitutes. Or use Cashew almond paste instead of using cream. Take cashews and almonds half cup each. Soak and ground it to a fine paste with a little water. Use half the paste in the sauce and use the rest to garnish.
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Paneer Butter Masala
Equipment
- 1 Medium Mixing bowl
- 1 Heavy Bottom Pot
- 1 Blender/ Mixer Grinder
Ingredients
- 350 gms Paneer(Indian cottage cheese) or 3 – 4 cups (cubed)
To Marinate :
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri Red Chili Powder or according to spice level
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
- 2 tbsp Lime Juice or juice from ½ lime
For Sauce :
- 2 small Red Onion (roughly chopped)
- 2 large Tomato (chopped)
- 3 cloves Garlic
- ½ tbsp Kashmiri Red chili powder
- 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 8 – 9 Cashew nuts
- 8 – 9 Almonds
- Lime juice from ½ lime
- 2 + 1 tbsp Butter
- 2 tsp Oil (optional)
- ¼ cup Heavy cream
- Cilantro/ Coriander leaves to garnish
Instructions
- Marinate cubed paneer with ingredients in the marinate list and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight (this step is totally optional).
- Soak cashews and almonds in warm water for 15 minutes. Remove the skin from almonds and set aside. (Refer Note : 3)
- Heat a heavy bottom pan and add butter and oil (optional). (Refer Note: 2) Shallow fry the marinated paneer for a minute on both sides and keep aside.
- Into the same pan add chopped onions, tomatoes, garlic cloves and socked nuts. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring once.
- Stir in rest of the spices and lime juice. (Refer Note: 4) You can add ¼ cup water if needed. Then cover and cook for another 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are mushy.
- Once it is done, blend the onion-tomato mixture in a mixer grinder or a blender to a fine paste.
- Sieve the onion-tomato paste through a mesh sieve to the same pan we used to cook. Sieving gives the sauce a silky smooth texture. But this step is optional.
- If the sauce seems too runny, simmer it to the consistency you are looking for. Then add the fried paneer and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. (Refer Note: 5)
- When it starts to boil add heavy cream, salt (if needed) and butter. Stir and turn off the heat.
- Garnish with cream, butter, and cilantro leaves.
Video
Notes
- If using store bought paneer, soak it in warm water before adding to the sauce. Or shallow fry the cubed paneer in butter or ghee (clarified butter) for 2 minutes on both sides.
- Adding a little oil to butter while frying paneer helps the butter from burning.
- You can use either cashews or almonds or equal quantities of both.
- You can skip adding lime juice by using more tomatoes. Just increase the quantity to 2 or 3.
- Remember not to overcook paneer cubes. If you have already fried the paneer then cook only for 3 to 5 minutes in the sauce. Otherwise it will get hard and chewy.
- The sauce I made is a bit spicy. Reduce the heat level accordingly. Or add ½ more cup of cream to the sauce.
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