Matar Paneer | Green Peas & Paneer Curry

Matar paneer curry is a delicious dish made with paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) green peas, cooked in onion and tomato-based gravy. This is a classic North Indian main course dish.

Matar Paneer Curry

Indian matar paneer or green peas & Indian cottage cheese curry is a versatile curry that goes well with any kind of Indian flatbreads like roti, naan, chapati or even with any rice preparations. This is a rich and creamy curry.

This is one common dish we make at home for any special occasions or get together. It's really easy to make matar paneer. It doesn't require any fancy ingredients to make this super easy and quick Indian paneer curry.

At home when we get bored of regular dishes and green vegetables or on holidays & weekends, I prefer this matar paneer curry for my lunch and dinner recipes. This refreshes our taste bud and at the same time this can be made as quickly as 15 - 20 minutes.

However there are many variations to make this dish. Some add cashew paste or heavy cream or curd etc. But this recipe has no cashew paste no cream in it. But still, it's delicious in taste.

Well to make any paneer recipes I use homemade paneer. But you can also take the store bought ones also to save time. In that case, soak paneer in warm water for 10 minutes to make this soft.

Read how to make soft paneer at home.

If you love such recipes, read my other posts like paneer tikka masala, sarson ka saag, palak paneer, gatte ki sabzi, dum aloo, palak paneer kofta curry, lauki kofta curry, malai kofta curry.

How to make matar paneer

While preparing this recipe I have mixed the curry paste with whole spices for additional flavors. With this curry paste, it took only 15 minutes to prepare this dish. Check the recipe of curry paste here!

The only task to do is heat the required amount of stored paste and add water.

Give it a boil. Add green peas to it and simmer for 5 minutes. Add paneer and cook for another 3 - 4 minutes till it soaks all aromatic flavors of spices.

Matar Paneer without ready curry paste

If you don't have the ready curry paste then use fresh onion & tomato paste. Grind 2 medium onion, 2 tomatoes, 5 - 6 garlic pods, 1tbsp chopped or crushed ginger. Also add 1-2 green chilli, 2 cloves, 2 cardamom, 1/2 inch cinnamon stick, 4 - 5 black pepper to the mixer along with onion and grind them together.

However adding whole spices is totally optional. You can add or even skip them if you don't like the strong flavor of garam masala or whole spices.

You can make this matar paneer curry rich by adding cashew and almond paste to the gravy. After the onion and other spice gets cooked completely, add 1 tsp beaten curd and mix well (But this step is also optional and you can skip curd if you don't want it.). Add 1/2 cup water and green peas. Let it simmer for some time before adding paneer into it.

You can shallow fry the paneer cubes. Another tip to make paneer soft, soak them in hot water for 10 - 15 minutes.

I have one more important tip friends which I have learnt from experience. I have once cooked paneer for 15 minutes (after adding to gravy). It turned out as chewy and hard. So don't overcook paneer as they will be hard and chewy by this and will spoil the whole preparation.

Recipe Card For Matar Paneer Curry

Matar Paneer / Green Peas & Paneer Curry

Ipsa Faujdar

This delicious dish of cottage cheese or paneer is prepared on onion and tomato based gravy.

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 25 mins

Course Main Dish, Paneer Special, Sabzi & Curry

Cuisine Indian

Servings 4 People

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 250 gm Paneer / Cottage Cheese
• 1/2 cup Green Peas
• 2 Onion finely chopped
• 2 Tomatoes Pureed
• 1 tsp Ginger garlic paste
• 4 - 5 tbsp Ghee/ Refined oil
• 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
• 2 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• Green Chilli – 3 finely chopped
• Salt as per taste
• 1 Bay Leaf (Tejpatta)
• 4 Cloves
• 4 Cardamom
• 1/2 Cinnamon stick
• 4 - 5 Black pepper

Instructions

 

• Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Add bay leaf. Add onion paste and sauté till onions cooked brown and leaves oil on surface. Add all dry spices (coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala) to the pan and sauté for 3 - 4 minutes.
• Add tomato puree and sauté for 2 minutes till its cooked. Then add green peas and paneer / cottage cheese cubes to the gravy.
• Add ½ - ¾ cup of water to it and mix well. Season with salt. Keep it on high flame. Simmer for 5 mins.
• Add coriander leaves and dry roasted kasuri methi (crushed) to the gravy. Cover with a lid.
• Matar Paneer is ready to be served. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with paratha, chapatti, rice etc.

Notes

Note: Don’t cook for long after adding paneer else it will tasty as chewy as rubber.

Keyword Indian Curry

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