Out of the many kadai preparations that are popular in North Indian restaurants across the globe, Kadai Paneer is one of the most loved vegetarian variants. Kadai Paneer recipe is a tangy, deeply spiced dish that is perfect for enjoying all year round. Made with pantry staples like onions, tomatoes, capsicum (green bell peppers) and Indian spices, this paneer dish comes together in 30 minutes. Here, I have shared a semi-dry restaurant style version.
About Kadai Paneer
As I have mentioned above, Kadai Paneer is a North Indian/Punjabi dish featuring soft paneer cubes cooked in a spicy, aromatic tomato-based gravy with sautéed onions and capsicum, infused with freshly ground kadai masala.
As the name suggests, Kadai Paneer is made with Indian cottage cheese, a.k.a paneer – a soft cheese that does not melt. Apart from being prepared in a kadai, a special kadai masala also adds to the unique rustic flavor of this dish.
The word ‘kadai’ or ‘karahi’ refers to a humble piece of Indian cookware, similar to a Chinese wok but with steeper sides, greater depth, and more thickness. Since the entire dish is typically made in a kadai, it is aptly named Kadai Paneer.
Table of Contents
Paneer is a fresh cheese made by curdling milk with an acidic food ingredient like lemon juice or vinegar. Unlike American-style cottage cheese, which is loose and made of individual curds, paneer is firm (like tofu), non-melting, and can be easily cut into cubes – making it the perfect choice for this Kadai Paneer recipe.
Due to its texture and firmness, paneer makes an excellent addition in other Indian curry recipes like Paneer Butter Masala, Palak Paneer, Shahi Paneer and Matar Paneer as well as various sabjis, stir-fries, and salads.
Kadai Paneer is one of the easiest and most delicious paneer recipes you can make.
Why This Recipe Works
This restaurant-style Kadai Paneer makes a semi-dry, mildly spiced dish with bold, rustic flavors. Its signature taste comes from freshly ground kadai masala, where coriander seeds and Kashmiri dried red chilies are the key spices.
If you do not have whole spices, you can substitute with spice powders like turmeric, Kashmiri red chili powder, garam masala, and coriander powder. Still, I highly recommend preparing the fresh kadai masala, as it lends a richer and deeper flavor.
In addition to paneer, onions, capsicum (green bell peppers), and tomatoes are the classic ingredients that complete the dish, along with a few select herbs and spices.
This simple yet flavorful recipe is adapted from the renowned cookbook Prashad – Cooking with Indian Masters by Jiggs Kalra.
How to make Kadai Paneer
Make Kadai Masala
1. In a spice-grinder, mixer-grinder or mortar-pestle, take 1.5 tablespoons coriander seeds and 5 to 6 Kashmiri dried red chilies.
Tip: Tear or break the dried chilies and remove the seeds before you make the kadai masala. Also, ensure that your spices are fresh and without any molds or insects.
2. Grind to a semi fine powder or a fine powder if you prefer. Set the ground kadai masala aside.
Sauté Onions, Tomatoes & Spices
3. In a kadai or wok or a sauté pan, heat 3 tablespoons oil. Add ⅓ to ½ cup finely chopped onions.
4. Sauté onions on medium-low to medium heat until they soften and turn translucent.
5. Then, add 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste.
6. Sauté for a few seconds or till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away.
7. Next, add 2.5 to 3 cups finely chopped tomatoes.
The tomatoes have to be ripe, red and sweet. If tomatoes are not in season, I recommend using canned tomatoes that you pulse in a food processor.
8. Mix well and sauté tomatoes on medium-low to medium heat 3 to 4 minutes.
9. Then, add the prepared kadai masala to the tomatoes.
10. Mix well. Sauté till the entire mixture turns into a paste and starts separating from the oil. (This method is called ‘bhunao‘ in Hindi.)
This onion-tomato masala will also begin to thicken and become glossy.
Sauté Capsicum
11. Add ¾ to 1 cup capsicum juliennes (thin slices).
12. Sauté the capsicum on medium-low to medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes.
Note: You can use red, orange, yellow or green colored capsicum, or a mix of various colored bell peppers.
13. Add 1 to 2 slit green chilies (or 1 small serrano pepper) and about ½ cup water.
Note: Add about 1 cup water, or as needed, to get a pouring consistency. You can make the dish dry or with some gravy by adding less or more water.
14. Mix very well and sauté until the capsicum is al dente.
Note: If you like, you can cook the capsicum until soft, but I prefer keeping a slight crunch in the dish.
15. Once the capsicum is cooked to your liking, add ½ teaspoon garam masala powder and salt as required. Mix these with the rest of the masala.
Make Restaurant Style Kadai Paneer
16. Next, add 250 grams cubed paneer.
17. Again, mix very well.
18. Lastly, add 1 teaspoon crushed dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), ginger juliennes (from 1 inch ginger) and 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves. Mix again and switch off the heat.
Note: If you do not have kasuri methi, then simply omit them. Fresh ginger is a must, so do not skip. It imparts a fresh, zesty flavor to the dish.
19. Serve Kadai Paneer hot with chapati, naan or Paratha
Serving Suggestions
This semi-dry Kadai Paneer tastes good with any kind of Indian flatbreads like Naan, paratha or Roti. It also pairs nicely with Pudina Paratha or Roomali Roti.
You can also have it with bread or dinner rolls (Pav), it’ll just taste as good as it does with the flatbreads. Make sure to serve with a side of onion rings and lemon wedges.
A more innovative idea would be to make grilled sandwiches, toasties, wrap or Kathi Roll with this restaurant style Kadai Paneer recipe; they simply taste incredible. Add some melting cheese to make these warm dishes even more tasty.
You can also make a Pizza with this semi-dry Kadai Paneer and mozzarella cheese as toppings.
Expert Tips
- Paneer: It is best to use homemade paneer, whenever possible. Although you can also use packaged store-bought paneer. Read the instructions on the package on how to use the paneer. Frozen paneer cubes need to be soaked in hot water before adding in the dish.
- Tomato: Use red, ripe and sweet tomatoes. Avoid using tart, green or sour tomatoes.
- Onion: You can use either red, yellow or white onions. All work well in this dish.
- Capsicum (bell pepper): Green bell pepper/capsicum is essentially added in this dish. But you can break the norm and use red or yellow bell pepper too. With red or yellow bell pepper, the dish will have subtle sweet tones.
- Homemade kadai masala: Coriander seeds and dried red chillies go in the kadai masala, making it aromatic and pungent. You can also add a bit of cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom in the masala, if you like.
- Dried red chillies: If Kashmiri chillies are unavailable, use any Indian dried red chilies with a low-medium heat quality. Highly pungent hot chillies will make the recipe too spicy. Change the quantity depending on the spiciness of the chillies. Since red chilies are added in the recipe, you do not need to add red chili powder.
- How to grind the spices: The spices for kadai masala can be easily ground in a small grinder or a spice grinder. To make the pounding easier in a mortar pestle, dry roast the red chilies and coriander seeds first.
- Cooking in a pan: No kadai? No problem. Simply use a frying pan or a sauté pan or a wok.
- Garnish: Do not forget to garnish the dish with some ginger juliennes and fresh coriander leaves (cilantro).
- Vegan option: Use tofu, instead of paneer and use oil, instead of butter or ghee (clarified butter).
FAQs
About 2 to 3 teaspoons should be good, depending on your preferred level of heat.
The spiciness of the masala is directly related to the type of chili you use and the amount of capsaicin it contains. If you want to mellow out the heat, you can add a bit of heavy cream, malai or dried milk powder to the mix.
Dairy helps to block capsaicin (the compound that tastes ‘spicy’) from your taste receptors. I’ve also found that adding a few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes can help to mitigate the heat. However, it’ll change the texture and appearance of the curry a bit.
Caring for your cookware is one of the best things you can do to save money. First, make sure your kadai is properly seasoned. Next, don’t use a scrubber on your kadai, rather use a sponge with detergent.
For very stubborn stains, you can mix some baking soda, vinegar and water and heat this solution in the pan itself. Then, using a sponge, wipe the solution over stains or marks. Once the iron kadai is clean and dry, there should be no need to re-season it.
In case food starts sticking or you don’t plan on using your kadai for a while, then, after you have cleaned and dried the kadai, spread a thin layer of oil prior to storing it. There is no need to heat this oil.
Yes, simply add a pinch or two of asafoetida (hing) to mimic the allium flavors.
More Paneer Recipes To Try!
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Kadai Paneer Recipe (Paneer Bell Pepper Curry)
Ingredients
For kadai masala
- 5 to 6 kashmiri red chilies – broken and seeds removed
- 1.5 tablespoons coriander seeds
Other ingredients
- 3 tablespoons oil
- ⅓ to ½ cup (90 grams or 1 medium-sized) onions – finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste
- 2.5 to 3 cups (400 grams or 5 to 6 medium-sized) tomatoes – finely chopped
- ¾ to 1 cup (1 medium to large) capsicum – thinly sliced
- 1 to 2 green chilies or 1 small serrano pepper – slit
- ½ cup water or add as required
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- 250 grams Paneer – cubed (Indian cottage cheese)
- 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves – crushed (kasuri methi)
- 2 tablespoons coriander leaves – chopped (cilantro leaves)
- 1 inch ginger – julienne
- salt as required
Instructions
Making kadai masala
- In a spice-grinder or mixer-grinder or mortar-pestle take the coriander seeds and red chilies.
- Grind to a semi-fine powder or fine powder and set aside.
Making kadai paneer
- In a kadai or frying pan, heat oil. Add finely chopped onions and sauté them till they turn translucent.
- Then add ginger-garlic paste. Saute till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away.
- Now add the finely chopped tomatoes. Saute tomatoes for 3 to 4 mins.
- Then add the ground kadai masala to the tomatoes.
- Saute the tomatoes till the whole mixture become like a paste and starts to leave oil. The mixture will also look glossy and you will see oil releasing from the sides.
- Now add the capsicum julienne. Saute the capsicum for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Then add green chilies and water.
- Mix very well and saute till the capsicum is half-cooked.
- Add salt and garam masala powder. Mix these well.
- Next add the paneer cubes and gently stir to combine with the sautéed masala base.
- Lastly add crushed frenugreek leaves, ginger julienne and coriander leaves. Mix again.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve kadai paneer, hot or warm with Indian flat breads – roti, paratha or naan. You can also serve it with a soft bread or fluffy dinner rolls. Remember to serve with a side of thinly sliced onions and lemon wedges.
- You can make grilled sandwiches, toasties or a wrap or roll with the dry kadai paneer. Add some melting cheese when making these warm sandwiches or rolls.
- Another idea is to make a pizza with the semi-dry kadai paneer and mozzarella cheese as toppings.
Video
Notes
- No Kadai: If you do not have a kadai, simply make the recipe in a frying pan or a wok.
- Kadai Masala: The kadai masala is made with coriander seeds and dried red chillies. A bit of cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom can also be added in the kadai masala.
- Dry Red Chillies: Use dry red chillies which have low to medium heat. Pungent and hot chillies will make the recipe too spicy. If possible add dry kashmiri red chillies since they are not very hot and give a nice orange-red color to the dish. If you do not have Kashmiri chilies, then use any Indian dry red chillies which have a low to medium heat quality.
- Grinding the spices: You can grind the spices for kadai masala in a small grinder or a spice grinder. To make the pounding easier in a mortar pestle, dry roast the red chilies and coriander seeds.
- Paneer: It is better to use homemade paneer. You can even use packaged store-bought paneer. Read the instructions on the package on how to use the paneer. Frozen paneer cubes need to be soaked in hot water before adding them in the dish.
- Tomatoes: Use tomatoes which are ripe, red and with a sweet taste. Do not use very tart or sour tomatoes.
- Onions: Both red onions and white onions can be added in the recipe.
- Capsicum (Bell Pepper): Usually green bell pepper is added in the dish. But you can use red or yellow bell pepper. With red or yellow bell pepper, the dish get nice subtle sweet tones. The capsicum are cut in strips or julienne. The capsicum can also be diced, but making julienne means faster cooking.
- Garnish: Do not forget to garnish with some ginger julienne and coriander leaves. Especially, the ginger julienne impart zesty, warm and pungent notes while eating.
- Vegan Option: Use tofu instead of paneer and use oil instead of butter or ghee.
- Serving Suggestions: The semi dry version of Kadai paneer tastes good with roti or naan or paratha (Indian flat breads). The gravy version pairs well with steamed rice, jeera rice (cumin rice), peas pulao and even roti or naan. Serve with a side of onion rings and lemon wedges.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
Kadai Paneer recipe from the archives was first published on September 2009.
nicely explained with pictures and also simple methods given thank s a lottt
thanks.
Dassana, this is the second recipe of your’s I’m trying in the same week (-:
Came out awesome! Everyone loved it and it truly is restaurant style (but better).
PS: I used ginger and garlic paste at the start and then added ginger pieces at the end. I needed to julienne my ginger finer or chop it up as I had a few pieces of almost raw ginger when I ate my serving 😛
Thank you!
welcome nikhil. glad to know that you liked the recipe. do try more recipes.
Hi Dassana, tried this recipe today for lunch…it was so delicious…thanx a lot for ur amazing efforts….m thinking to try shahi paneer soon ..want to know the melon seeds u mentioned there are musk melon seeds or watermelon seeds..
thanks kirti. in the shahi paneer recipe watermelon seeds are used to make the paste.
Definitely a 5-star recipe 🙂
So tasty, please give it a try.
(I would have rated it on my last post but the rating stars weren’t working)
thanks stacey. i don’t know why rating stars sometime does not work.
I made this recipe this evening and it was tasty! However I mad a couple alterations. Instead of using paneer, I used tofu. I am confident that paneer would be really tasty however I am trying to lower my dairy intake.
I also used fenugreek powder (1/2 tsp) instead of fenugreek leaves and I used ground ginger (less than 1 tsp) instead of fresh ginger.
thanks stacey for sharing your variation. yes, you can make the dish with tofu also.
Hi dasanna,
i have been reading and trying most of the recipes that you post. I like them. I just wanted to know whether we get dry fenugreek leaves in market? I have been searching for it at many places but could not get it.. most of your recipies use this, so please tel me whether this can be home made
Regards,
Amitha
we do get dry fenugreek leaves in the market. its called as kasuri methi. you can make at home too. an easy way is to just dry the methi leaves in the sun. first rinse the leaves well, pat then dry with a kitchen towel and then dry them in the sun. when they are completely dried, store in an air tight box. btw the finest kasuri methi comes from kasur/qasoor in pakistan.
Hi Dassana,
Thank you once again for this simple and flavourful recipe.Made it few days back with rotis. Everyone loved it.
thanks and welcome ashwini.
I love ur all recpie &ur way of presenting
thanks sufia
i am going to try this. I dont know would i can do tis but this is awosome…………….
Do you have a facebook page?
fb page link is mentioned on the blog.
This looks heavenly i have a block of paneer in the refrigerator and this dish of yours is asking me to make it :))
i love ur all receipe.plz give me some tandoori deceices…
thanks
chanu(twesha)
thanks chanu, i will post few more tandoori recipes in few days time. there are already few posted in the blog.
hi dassana,
the recipe is awesom n so easy to make. im single n hardly cook, though i like cooking bt my job doesnt allow me to do so. i love kadhaai paneer bt nvr tried my hands in it./….today the cook dint turn up n i had all the veggies required so i decided to cook n search fr the recipe…this was the first site i stumbled upon n the result ws surprising…:) thanks a lot n keep it up….will surely try ur other recipes. all the best!
thanks divya for the positive feedback.
Hi,
I am making this like every other week, It is just yummy, thank you,
I would like to make a suggestion to it, saute the paneer in some oil before mixing it to the curry, it enhances the taste.:-)
Thank you,
thanks farhath. i know sauting the paneer in oil before adding to the masala does taste good. will add your suggestion in the notes section of the recipe.
Too good………. I made this at eid party and everyone loved it. Will try some other receipts by you very soon.
thanks aisha