Matar Paneer or Mutter Paneer is a delicious recipe made with cottage cheese or paneer and green peas in a tomato and onion gravy which is mildly spicy. This is one of the popular Punjabi recipe. This is one of my favorite recipes and I have been preparing it every now and then. Just today, I decided to blog about it.
This is the season of green peas. Get them fresh, separate them from the pods and store it in the freezer in an air tight container. You can them use these fresh green peas in any recipe whenever you need. I have been doing this every season whenever the fresh green peas are available in market. You can even make this delicious peas pulao and pack it in the lunch box.
You can serve this Matar paneer with jeera rice or naan, phulkas or rotis. You can even pack this in the lunch box. This recipe is very simple and easy to prepare. If you have a party or surprise guests at home, you can impress the guests with this matar paneer recipe.
Oh yes! Peas are loaded with nutrients and are very good for health. Eating peas helps in weight management, helps in anti-aging and promotes a strong immune system. Apart from these, there are many more health benefits of green peas. You can make this recipe healthier by adding low fat cottage cheese or paneer. Let us now go to the Matar Paneer recipe.
Matar Paneer Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup green peas
- 200 gms fresh paneer/cottage cheese 1 packet
- 10 cashewnuts crushed
- 2 medium sized onion chopped
- 3 medium sized tomatoes chopped
- 10 Garlic Pods peeled and chopped
- 1 inch ginger chopped
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon Coriander seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon bark
- 1 bay leaf torn
- 2 cloves
- 5 black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoon red chili powder
- 2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 2 tablespoon curds/yogurt
- 1 tablespoon kasoori methi
- Some Coriander Leaves chopped for garnish
- 2 tablespoon oil
Instructions
- Let us prepare matar paneer. Boil the green peas and keep aside.
- Heat a kadai and add oil.
- Add cashewnuts and fry till it turns brownish.
- Add whole spices like bay leaf, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves and black peppercorns and wait till the oil gets infused with spice content. Do not burn the spices.
- Add onion and sautรฉ till it turns pinkish.
- Add garlic and ginger and sautรฉ.
- Add tomatoes and sautรฉ till they turn mushy.
- Switch off the gas and let this cool down.
- After the contents form the kadai cools down, blend the onion tomato mixture. If needed add 1/2 cup water.
- Again heat the kadai/wok, add oil.
- Add the spice powders like turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and garam masala and fry for 2 minutes.
- Pour the onion-tomato paste from the blender and mix well. Sautรฉ for 5 minutes.
- Add paneer cubes and mix well.
- After 2 minutes add the boiled green peas.
- Add 2 tablespoon curds/yogurt and mix well.
- If the gravy is too thick, add 1/2 cup water or as required.
- Add crushed kasoori methi and mix well. Add salt to taste.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
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