Hi everyone, welcome to mumnums. I’m so pleased to see you 😊
For my first recipe, I had to do matar paneer, one of my all-time favs.
I’ll give you the recipe first and we can have a chat about it later because I know you just want to get down to it, so here it is:
Makes enough for 4-6. Prep time – 10 minutes, cooking time – 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Paste:
· 1 onion
· 3 cloves garlic
· 80 g ground almonds
· 200ml water
Sauce:
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground panch pooran (Indian 5 spice)
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
2 tins tomatoes, blended
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt (sea salt flakes)
400ml hot water
the rest:
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
500g paneer cubed
300g frozen peas
1 tsp garam masala
3 tbsp crème fraise
Fresh coriander leaves to garnish
METHOD
To make the paste blend together onions, garlic and ground almonds with 200mls of warm water until it’s a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a pan, best to use a non-stick pan if you have one.
Add cumin seeds and bay leaves. Once they look browned add the paste.
Add turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, ground coriander seeds and ground panch pooran. Keep stirring and cook for 10 minutes on a low heat.
Add tinned tomatoes, salt, and cook for a further minute and add 400ml of hot water. Put a lid on the pan and cook for a further 15 minutes on low.
Boil a pan of water and leave to one side.
In a frying pan heat some oil and fry the paneer over a low heat until golden.
Once the paneer is done, take straight from the frying pan and put into the boiled water, leave for about 5 minutes, and drain - by soaking in water after frying, this helps with reduction of oil.
Add the paneer to the sauce and cook for another 10 minutes.
Add peas and garam masala and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Take off the heat and add crème fraise and garnish with chopped coriander.
TIPS
· Make it vegan – use tofu instead of paneer and vegan crème fraiche (I use Oatly Creamy Oat Fraiche)
· Reduce the spice if you’re not too keen on hot food – either leave out the cayenne pepper or halve the quantity.
· If you want to reduce the amount of oil, grill the paneer instead of shallow fry.
· This is great for freezing too, if you’ve got any leftovers, freeze them, and you’ve got a homemade meal for later.
· Also, leftovers are great for the next day’s lunch – trust me, it tastes better the day after.
Serve with anything you like, but a few suggestions are:
· Rice
· Naan
· Parathas or Puri
· On toast it’s amazing too
I will happily sit with a bowl but on its own. You can add a side salad if you’d like too.
I just can’t resist this creamy and inviting dish, and it’s just as good with tofu, and probably a lot healthier.
Translated, matar paneer is simply peas and paneer.
Paneer is an Indian cheese, but it’s the simplest of cheeses you can get!! It’s just the curd from split milk, pressed for a while to remove any water, it’s not matured; you can use it straight away.
For this recipe I didn’t make my paneer, it’s readily available in most supermarkets now so it’s easier just to get it ready-made.
Peas - yum, paneer – yum, who could say no!! Have it with anything you fancy or just on its own, as I do 😊
I've made this dish before but I took inspiration from www.sanjanafeasts.co.uk by adding the ground almonds, it gave it a more creamy texture, so thank you Sanjana 😘
I don’t call myself a huge foodie, there are some things I just won’t even try, but, give me matar paneer and I can’t get enough of it.
I hope you do give this recipe a go and love it as much as I do.
Let me know how you get on and send me pictures and/or comments below. Also, use the comments below if you’ve got any questions, I can’t promise to know the answers, depends on the question really!
Happy Cooking and see you again soon 💖
See method in pictures below:
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