When forced to eat vegetarian food while dining out, Paneer butter masala is my saviour. I relish the buttery flavour and velvety texture with a hot naan. I never dared to make this at home coz I knew I am not bold enough to get myself to put the amount of butter and cream required to get that amazing restaurant taste & texture.
With the lock-down, I started hunting for a healthier version of my favorite paneer. I remembered having come across a recipe in Mom’s tattered notes wherein she had written a few substitutes to main ingredients READ cream. Though she never cooked this for us, the recipe turned out to be an absolute keeper! The texture and taste was completely maintained!
Serves – 4 Time – 30 Minutes
Ingredients
- Paneer/Cottage Cheese Cubes – 200 gms
- Tomatoes diced – 2 medium size
- Cashew nut – 10
- Cloves – 3
- Whole Black pepper – 5
- Cinnamon – ½ inch
- Bay leaf – 1
- Ginger chopped – 1 tblspn
- Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp
- Cumin whole – ½ tsp
- Kasoori methi/Dried Fenugreek – 1 tblspn
- Garam masala/Whole spice powder – 1 tsp
- Water – 1 cup
- Milk – 1 cup
- Sugar – ½ tsp
- Butter – 1 tblspn
- Oil – 1 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Ratan jot/Beetroot(optional) – 1 small piece for color
Method
- Boil tomatoes, cashew nuts, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, bay leaf, ginger, red chilli powder, beetroot for ten minutes. Tomatoes should be soft & mushy
- Discard the bay leaf and let cool completely & grind in mixer/food processor
- Heat oil & butter in a pan and add cumin seeds
- Add the grinded mixture and cook till oil separates
- Add paneer cubes & salt
- Cook for around 3-4 minutes and add milk
- Give it a boil and add kasoori methi & garam masala powder
- Cook till gravy thickens and serve hot
Notes
- When being cooked, tomatoes tend to bubble. So I prefer cooking it covered on low flame and stirring every 2 minutes to avoid getting burnt
- Ma’s recipe had ½ cup peanuts(without skin) as the substitute for cashew nuts
- Dilute milk with water if you want it to be even more low cal 😊
My Medley Rasoi 