Paneer makes for one of the most versatile vegetarian dishes! Be it a dry vegetable, be it fry or be it gravy, a snack in itself or a filling; paneer can fit in everywhere. Paneer is a vegetarian’s haven. It is a perfect substitute for chicken as is evident from popular dishes like paneer butter masala, paneer tikka, paneer satay!
Kadhai paneer is a great accompaniment to any Indian dinner spread. This recipe is adapted from a Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe.
Kadhai Paneer
Preparation Time: 10 mins | Cooking Time: 10 mins | Serves 2
Ingredients
200 gms of paneer cut into I inch squares
1 small green capsicum, de-seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium onion thinly sliced
1 small tomato, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 dried red chilli
2-3 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
Method
- Heat oil in a Kadhai
- Add bay leaf, dried red chilly, cloves, cinnamon and crushed coriander seeds (keep a little for garnishing). Saute for a few seconds
- Add onions, capsicum and ginger-garlic paste. Saute for a couple of minutes
- Add the rest of the spices and tomato. Cook covered until the spices are cooked well
- Add paneer and salt. Mix it well and cook for 2-3 minutes
- Sprinkle some garam masala, garnish with coriander seeds and serve hot.
Note: Always add paneer at the end of the cooking else it will become hard. In case of reheating, sprinkle a little water over the dish to prevent the paneer from becoming hard.
I used to cook Kadhai Paneer a lot and many people loved it. Since being a big fan of sweet corn, my recipe included corn (steam sweet corn with butter and salt, and they stir fry it separately and just when you add garam masala, add corn into the dish) 🙂
corn would be an interesting addition.. Next time will try it with corn. Thanks for the sugegstion 🙂
Cheers,
Ashima
you are not included turmeric powder any dishes why? please relly
Hello Jyotsana,
I use turmeric in most dishes except for the ones where I do not want the yellow colour like this one :). Turmeric is a great antiseptic so about a 1/4 tsp of it should be included in all dishes. There are a only a handful of Indian dishes, where I don’t add turmeric.
Made Kadhai Paneer after reading your post. I found nowhere as easy explanation as by you. It was first time. Paneer got hard. I don’t know whether Paneer was hard or I made it so. I think Capsicum should also be added at later stage to keep it a bit hard(it shouldn’t be allowed to boil completely).
Hello Himanshu, thank you for liking the recipe and also sharing your feedback. If you cooked too long after adding paneer it tends to become a bit hard (even reheating might make the paneer a bit hard) in this recipe..
As you rightly said, the time to add capsicum can be changed depending on how you like it.. If you want the capsicum to have a little bite to it, add it with the tomatoes and spices. 🙂