Mutter Paneer Recipe

Mutter Paneer Recipe

This delicious Mutter Paneer Curry is one of our new favourites.  A smooth, rich tomato sauce with chunks of paneer and finished off with peas.  A stunning standalone curry or a great vegetarian curry option if you are hosting a curry night.

(Please note that we have another Matar Paneer Recipe on our site which is very different - the paneer is fried and the dish is much more of a side dish (not a curry.)

You could make the sauce ahead of time and freeze,  Then simply add the paneer and peas when you are ready to serve.

Makes: Curry for around 4-6

Heat: Quite hot but use different blends for a milder result (or leave out the chili)

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 45 mins

INGREDIENTS

• 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger, grated or very finely chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced or very finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 large vine ripe tomatoes (choose deep red tomatoes), roughly chopped
• 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 chili, chopped.   Seeds in will create a hotter result
• 4 tsps Madras Curry Powder
  
• 1 tsp salt - you may need to add more at the end.
• 3 x 200g packets of Paneer (600g in total)
• 2-3 cups of Frozen peas

METHOD

1. Heat the oil in a medium pan.  Once hot, add the onions and cook until translucent.  This will take around 10 minutes.  
2. Deglaze the pan with a little water.  Continue to cook and once the water has evaporated, continue to cook the onions until they take on a deeper brown colour.  This will take around 3 minutes.
3. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 1-2 mins.
4. Add the tomato paste, tin of tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, the chili ( if using), Madras (or other) spices, salt and cook down for a few minutes, until the mixture looks rich and dark.  5-10 minutes. 
   
5. Add some water if it gets too thick or starts to catch.  I added around 100ml of water at this point.  Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
6. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes before liquidising to a smooth sauce.  You could of course skip this step but we wanted to try and emulate a restaurant style sauce.  Add more water to get the desired consistency.  You could now freeze the sauce if you are planning ahead.
7. Warm up the sauce in a pan.  Then add the chopped paneer.  Cook for a few minutes until the sauce and paneer are warmed through.  
8. Add the peas.  It will only take a few minutes of gentle heat to thaw the peas.
9. You could also add in some cream here.  (We did not add cream).
10. Garnish with tons of fresh coriander.

I cooked this as part of a curry night for friends so I defrosted the sauce then actually used the slow cooker to warm up the sauce over a couple of hours, then added the paneer and later the peas.  I served it straight from the slow cooker as I was short on space!

For more vegetarian curry ideas, have a look at our round up here.