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Mutter Paneer – Peas and Paneer Curry

Seems like I am back after a long hiatus – 4 days, uhmm not really but I missed being here! How is it November already? I just can’t wrap my head around how fast time is going and the seasons changing…it snowed on Halloween here. The weather is also playing tricks on my mind. It’s crazy!

With the Indian festival season behind us, now is the time to settle in and start thinking about the next phase of the year that lies ahead – beautiful holidays of Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Lot of cooking, baking, filling the home with cosy fall and winter aromas. So exciting!! Above all, I have a big birthday party to plan and put in action in two weeks…yikes! Hopefully I’ll survive – lot of deep breathing needed!

Today, I want to share with you a very popular North Indian dish. Being a Punjabi, I might claim it to be a Punjabi dish but there is really no “zoning” of food. I am talking about Mutter Paneer – an irresistibly tasty curry that you will find on menus of almost all North Indian restaurants and is also very popular “dhaba” food. Soft paneer cubes and sweet peas are dunked in a flavorful curry made of onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic. It is one of my go to dishes when I do not have a lot of fresh vegetables in the crisper bin. I almost always have a batch of paneer and bag of peas in the freezer and that is what does it for mutter paneer. If paneer is not your thing, extra firm tofu will do the trick as well. If you are in a rush, mutter paneer can be made in a pressure cooker, though it doesn’t take too long to cook in an open sauce pan too.

Ingredients:

Paneer – 1 batch (recipe here), about ½ pound or 250 g

Green peas – 1 cup (frozen or fresh)

Onion – ½ onion or about ½ cup chopped onion

Tomatoes – 2 ripe, or 1 cup chopped tomatoes

Ginger – ½ inch piece, peeled

Garlic – 2 cloves

Green chili – 1 (optional)

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Cumin seeds – ½ teaspoon

Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon

Red chili powder/Paprika/Cayenne powder – ¼ teaspoon

Coriander powder – 2 teaspoon

Garam masala powder – ¼ teaspoon

Salt – to taste

Water – 1.5 cups

Coriander – leaves from 4-5 sprigs, finely chopped

Method:

If using frozen peas and paneer, set them out on the counter to thaw. If your paneer is in a block, you might want to dunk the bag of paneer in warm water to quickly thaw it. I always cut my paneer into cubes before freezing. Saves me a lot of time and frustration. If using tofu, wrap it in a paper towel or kitchen towel and put something heavy on it to further drain out the moisture.

Grind together onion, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and green chili to a smooth paste to make the base of “masala” for our mutter paneer. You can do it in a blender or with a hand blender. You might need to add a tablespoon or two of water.

Set a heavy bottomed saucepan or pressure cooker on medium high heat, add oil and once the oil is shimmering add the cumin seeds. Wait till the cumin seeds start dancing around in the hot oil, then add your prepared ground masala. It might splutter and splash a bit so be careful. Add all the dry powders except garam masala, stir and mix everything together. Turn the heat to medium low and cook/bhoono the masala till all the moisture evaporates and you can see tiny droplets of oil start to appear at the edges of the masala. This should take no more than 10 minutes. Keep stirring in between.

While the masala is cooking, cut the paneer/tofu into bite size cubes. If you feel like it, you can pan fry the paneer in a little bit of oil in a nonstick pan to make sure it doesn’t fall apart in the gravy. I do this only when I am feeling “fancy” or making mutter paneer for company.

After the masala is bhoonoed (cooked as per above description), add the peas and cubed paneer, about one and a half cups of water (add to adjust consistency to your liking, we like our curry a little thick), salt to taste and mix. Turn the heat up to high and cover with a lid. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium low and cook for 10-15 minutes. If using pressure cooker, after turning the heat to high, put the lid on and cook for 1-2 whistles.

Turn the heat off, uncover (for pressure cooker wait till the pressure releases by itself), add garam masala and chopped coriander, adjust salt (if needed). Serve hot with roti (recipe here), naan or rice (recipe here). Enjoy!!

Love – Vaishali.

Tools used:

Sauce pan/pressure cooker

Blender/hand blender

Knife and chopping board

Measuring spoons and cups

Spatula

29 Comments

  1. Harish Joshi

    July 29, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    As I’m from India, have tasted this amazing recipe with everyone here at your blog..

  2. Adaezeboltbethel

    July 29, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    Yummy as usual. This is something I would love to try.

  3. Abhishek Srivastava

    July 29, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    It’s my favourite one and your post will help me to make it special.

  4. Evelyn Hernandez

    July 29, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    This looks amazing, I love curry!

  5. Angela

    July 29, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    Great ideas…ihate to cook but love to eat!!

  6. Lauren

    July 29, 2018 at 7:30 pm

    My husband and I love Indian food & are always looking for new recipes. I love anything with paneer. Can’t wait to make this!

  7. Shannon

    July 29, 2018 at 11:05 pm

    I really need to get some graham masala powder so I can make some more of your recipes! Yum!

  8. Allie

    July 30, 2018 at 7:15 am

    This looks yummy! I’ll have to try the recipe!

  9. Juli

    July 30, 2018 at 7:27 am

    I love curry so I will try it with anything.

  10. Backpacking Series

    July 30, 2018 at 9:55 am

    Was looking up for something new to try for dinner and so happy to find this post. Some things are ever green and Matar Paneer is just that!

  11. Navneet

    July 30, 2018 at 10:09 am

    Super delish!! This is one of my favourites, in fact I’ve made matar paneer for dinner tonight😍 And you’re so right time is flying by, so many things to do and so little time!!
    Good luck with the birthday preparations, I’m sure you’d do wonders!!

  12. Europe Finance blog

    July 30, 2018 at 10:14 am

    That looks damn good. Absolutism yummy!

  13. Indu

    July 30, 2018 at 11:39 am

    My all time favorite dish. Being vegetarian and being Punjabi I have grown up relishing matar paneer. In all versions I find it delicious.

  14. Indu

    July 30, 2018 at 11:45 am

    My all time fav dish. I relish all version of matar paneer. Now will try your recipe too how it tastes because subtle variation in spices makes all the difference.

  15. Madison Scholl

    July 30, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    That looks really good! I’m always happy to see a nice vegetarian recipe!

  16. Tracy @ Cleland Clan

    July 30, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    This looks like the perfect dish for cool fall days!

  17. Sophia Inza

    July 30, 2018 at 8:40 pm

    Wow this looks so good! I love all the spices!

  18. Maysz

    July 30, 2018 at 9:32 pm

    Wow! This Peas and Paneer Curry looks delicious! I’ll try to make my own version of this recipe thanks for sharing!

  19. Pavan K

    July 30, 2018 at 11:07 pm

    This is my favourite dish! My mom makes it so amazingly and I cannot have enough. I like that the picture of the food has good size paneer pieces. I have been to restaurants where mutter paneer — is just mutter. I will totally give this recipe a go! Looks delicious.

    1. Vaishali

      July 31, 2018 at 9:31 am

      Ha ha…i agree about mutter paneer having just mutter at some places. And I’m sure mom’s cooking cannot be beat!

  20. Remo

    July 30, 2018 at 11:58 pm

    I LOVE PANEER. I can have Paneer dish any day/ every day. Your recipe seems interesting. Will try it out soon.

  21. aisasami

    July 31, 2018 at 4:42 am

    I want to try this recipe, especially now as I have a summertime cold. Can you substitute the paneer for tofu (which is common here in Japan)?

    1. Vaishali

      July 31, 2018 at 9:30 am

      Absolutely. I make lot of my paneer recipes with tofu..:)

  22. my wee thoughts

    July 31, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    Ohh it looks amazing! Not to mention how much I love curry! Will save this for future reference.

  23. Neil Alvin Nicerio

    July 31, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    Yummy, I have always wanted to try a mutter paneer. At least now I have the idea on how to cook it.

  24. ann

    July 31, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    Interesting! I love India’s curry. Would love to try this one.

  25. melissa

    July 31, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    I need to try this recipe, my husband love curry. I will try out this dish.

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