Paneer Makhani is a vegetarian classic favorite and you can savor it during fasting or Navratri by omitting the onion & garlic in the gravy. Paneer is an excellent source of vegetarian protein and keeps you filled through the day while fasting. The gravy is rich, creamy, spicy and tangy based on tomatoes & cashew. The sabzi goes good with salad, kuttu and singhara poori or samak rice poori or steamed samo rice.

Servings: 4
Calories: 265 per person
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 200- 250 gram Paneer
• 4- 5 large Tomatoes, quartered
• 1″ piece Ginger, roughly chopped
• 3-4 tbsp. Cashews
• 1 cup Water + ½ Cup Water/ Milk
• 4 tbsp. Fresh Cream
• 2 tbsp. Unsalted White Butter
• 2 tsp. Oil
• 1 tsp. Cumin Seeds (Jeera)
• 1 stick Cinnamon (Dalchini)
• 4 cloves Cloves (Laung)
• 2 Green Cardamoms (Elaichi)
• 5- 6 Black Peppercorns
• ½ tsp. Turmeric powder (Haldi)
• 1 tsp. Kashmiri Red Chilli powder
• ½ tsp. Cardamom powder
• 2 tbsp. chopped Green Coriander
• 2 tsp. Sugar
• Sendha Salt to taste

Method:

1. Boil water in a saucepan and add in the quartered tomatoes, quartered, ginger and cashews.
2. When it comes to a boil, cover it with a lid and let it simmer on low flame for around 12- 15 minutes or until tomatoes are very soft.
3. Drain the excess liquid from the boiled mixture and keep the tomato mixture aside, while reserving the drained liquid.
4. Cool the tomato mixture down and make it into a smooth paste using a blender.
5. Heat oil in the same frying pan and add the cumin seeds (jeera), cinnamon (dalchini), cloves (laung), green cardamom (elaichi) and black peppercorns.
6. After the cumin seeds (jeera) splutter, add the prepared paste and turmeric powder (haldi) and cook it for 2-3 minutes on high flame, stirring occasionally.
7. Add the kashmiri red chilli powder, sugar and salt and cook the sauce on medium-high flame for 10- 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Cut the paneer into cubes, add to the prepared masala and mix well till all the paneer cubes are well coated with masala.
9. Add the reserved liquid, in which tomatoes mixture was boiled, to the prepared sauce and cook stirring for 2-3 minutes.
10. Add desired amount of water or milk to adjust the consistecy, check the seasoning and let it come to a boil.
11. Turn the flame to medium and add the fresh cream, butter, green cardamom powder, green coriander and mix well.
12. Switch off the flame and serve the Paneer Makhani with kuttu and aighara poori or samak poori or steamed samak rice and salad.

Notes:

1. You can use the same gravy with koftas or any other vegetable of your choice.
2. To make it healthier replace cream with 1 tbsp. cream and 2 tbsp. milk and reduce the butter also in the makhani sauce.
3. Preferably use kashmiri red chilli powder to get the perfectly colored makhani sauce. If using spicier chilli, then reduce the amout to ½ tsp.
4. You can also cook the makhani sauce mixture in a pressure cooker till 1 whistle and then puree it instead of boiling in a sauce pan.
5. Remember to cool the tomato mixture down before blending as hot mixture might ooze out.