Matar Paneer

Matar Paneer is one of my favourite vegetarian curries. With browned cubes of Indian paneer cheese plus peas in a thick, spicy tomato sauce freshened with mint, I think this Punjabi dish is utterly delicious. With a good stock of whole and ground spices in your cupboard, it’s pretty easy to make too. Even better, Matar Paneer will improve if made in advance and left for the flavours to develop.

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Matar Paneer, sometimes called mattar or mutter paneer, is one of those vegetable dishes, along with Aloo Gobi that I’ll often order in an Indian restaurant. But a good few years ago I discovered that a really tasty Matar Paneer can easily be made at home. In fact, for my first effort I even made my own paneer!

PANEER

Paneer, sometimes written as panir, is a very simple, un-ripened cheese. It’s made by heating whole milk then adding something acidic, often lemon juice. This causes the milk to split into solid curds and liquid whey. A piece of muslin cloth or similar is used to strain out the solids. This is also how you get Homemade Ricotta.

To firm up the cheese, so that it can be cut into cubes and fried for dishes like Matar Paneer, a weight is put on top to press out more of the liquid.

But paneer is widely available to buy these days, including in supermarkets. Whether you use homemade or bought, making easy, tasty Matar Paneer curry is exactly the same.

MATAR PANEER

As mentioned above, one thing you do get as a by-product of making paneer is lots of whey. Traditionally, this is used as part of the liquid in the Matar Paneer sauce. You can also use up whey by substituting it for the water when making bread dough. This is what I often do when straining my Homemade Yogurt to make it thick, Greek style, or for Labneh: homemade yogurt cheese. However, when I don’t have whey, a combination of full fat yogurt and water is a perfectly acceptable substitute.

Although the ingredient list looks long, there’s nothing difficult about making Matar Paneer.

The simple steps, detailed in the recipe card at the end of the post, are:

• Whizz up a paste of onions, garlic, ginger, chillies plus ground paprika, turmeric, coriander, fenugreek and water. Set aside.
• Brown the paneer. Set aside.
• Heat whole spices (mustard, fennel and cumin seed) before going on to make a thick, spicy tomato sauce.
• Add frozen peas, the browned paneer, fresh herbs and cook for a final few minutes.

SERVING MATAR PANEER

I love Matar Paneer with cauliflower ‘rice’ plus a big, crunchy vegetable salad dressed with a fried tarka of spices.

In the salad you see here, there’s carrots, white cabbage, radish, peppers, red onion, coconut shavings, raisins and home sprouted lentils. To dress, try heating some cumin, fennel and mustard seeds in oil then pour the whole lot over the salad. Season with lemon juice, salt and a little chilli powder if you like. Stir in chopped coriander and/or mint just before serving.

If you’ve any leftovers, Matar Paneer is great the next day too. Unlike many vegetarian curries, there’s nothing to go soggy. In fact, the paneer will soak up even more of the lovely spicy flavours from the sauce.

Try the recipe below and, with very little effort, you’ll be rewarded with a rich, satisfying dish you’ll want to make again and again.

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Matar Paneer

A traditional Punjabi dish popular in British Indian restaurants, Matar Paneer is incredibly easy to make at home. Browned cubes of paneer cheese are cooked in a delicious, mint & coriander spicy tomato sauce along with peas.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Indian, Vegetarian

Keyword mattar paneer, matar paneer

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 4

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil e.g. sunflower
• 250 g paneer cut into 2 cm cubes
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 20 g butter or ghee
• 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1-2 tsp sugar optional
• salt to taste
• 200 ml water
• 100 ml full fat plain yogurt
• 2 level tbsp garam masala
• 200 g frozen peas
• 1 medium bunch coriander leaf roughly chopped
• 1 medium bunch fresh mint, leaves only roughly chopped

For the curry paste:

• 2 medium onions skinned, roughly chopped
• 8 cloves garlic skinned, roughly chopped
• 2-3 fresh chillies de-seeded if liked, roughly chopped
• 3 cm root ginger peeled, grated
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground fenugreek
• 1 tsp paprika
• 0.5 tsp ground tumeric

Instructions

1. Make the curry paste

   Using a stick blender or food processor, whizz together all the ingredients for the curry paste until smooth, then set aside.

2. Brown the paneer

   In a large frying or sauté pan, heat the oil to moderately high. In batches, fry the cubes of paneer, turning to brown on all sides. Transfer the cubes to a plate while you cook the rest then set aside.

Make the curry

1. Using the same pan, add the mustard, fennel and cumin seeds to the oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly, until they fizzle and pop.

2. Turn the heat down to medium and put in the butter or ghee and the curry paste, stir well and cook for 10-12 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

3. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar if using, plus a little salt. Stir well.

   Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes (approx 10-20 minutes).
   

4. Add the water, yogurt and half the garam masala. Cook over a low heat, covered, for another 10 minutes.
   

5. Add the fried paneer, frozen peas and half the coriander leaf and mint. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
   

6. When the sauce is reduced to your liking, add the rest of the garam masala plus more salt if needed.

   Stir in the rest of the coriander and mint before serving.
   

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