Those that know us personally, and regular blog readers will know WE LOVE INDIAN FOOD! Seriously! It’s a love affair with food that will NEVER die. What we love about Indian food is the vegetarian options, the rich flavors, the beautiful colors, veggies and of course MINT CHUTNEY! Already we’ve pegged out days during our England trip when we are going to dine at Slice of India. A few years ago though we took some cooking lessons off our Indian friends that lived nearby (till they moved away, booooo!) and I got renown for my matar paneer, and my samosas. Today I thought I’d share my matar paneer recipe.
For those not in the know, or for Indian food newbies Matar is hindi for peas and Paneer is an Indian cheese. So this recipe is vegetarian but not vegan. You can substitute the paneer for tofu, and I do have a recipe for tofu masala I will also be sharing soon 😉 Stay tuned!
MATAR PANEER – Workout with Di
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 1 Tbspn Ginger/Garlic Paste
- 1/2 tspn Cumin Powder
- 1 tspn Chili Powder
- 2 tspn Tumeric
- 1/2 tspn Garam Masala
- 6oz tinned tomatoes
- 1 1/4 cup 1% milk
- 1 1/2 cups Frozen Peas
- 1 package/ (400g) Paneer
Directions:
- Chop onion, we prefer to cut up and mix in a blender as Bob doesn’t like large peices of onion 😉
- In a large pan add the onion and cook on medium heat
- Once the onion is cooked (the raw onion smell will have gone!) add the ginger/garlic paste and the spices, cook through for 2 minutes to release the flavors of the spices 🙂
- Add the tomatoes, and mix well, simmer for 2-3 minutes
- Add peas to sauce, mix and simmer
- Cut paneer onto cubes (personal choice, we like smaller 1/2″ cubes), and add to sauce. Mix through and simmer.
- Add milk, mix and simmer for 3-4 minutes
- Add small amount water if necessary, to desired consistency
Nutritional Information
Obviously this is a GUIDE! We generally get 6 servings from the recipe depending on how much water I add, and sometimes I’ll throw in extra veggies to make it go further. Mushrooms are a GREAT addition to this recipe btw! The nutritional information below is for the matar paneer ONLY not the rice, breads or anything else you serve it with 😉
Extra information…
Originally this recipe calls for CREAM AND BUTTER, so this is the low fat version. Trust me with all the milk and paneer this is still a tasty dish but the original version in restaurants is MUCH richer. Which also makes me shudder and the fat content of those dishes. As I mentioned above I also make a vegan version with almond milk, and tofu which I’ll post soon, need to make it again and snap some photo’s 😉 The tofu version is much higher in protein that this paneer version and lower fat too 😉
The sauce works well with any vegetables so feel free to add more veggies and make the meal go further! Typically we serve this with brown pilau rice (recipe soon) and Bob will have a naan bread and I’ll generally have a serving of broccoli.