Methi Paneer

Methi paneer is a flavorful, robust curry made with fresh fenugreek leaves, soft paneer cubes in a spiced and tangy onion, tomatoes and curd (yogurt) based gravy. The curry has bitter hints of fresh fenugreek leaves that harmoniously balance with the lightly sour and savory flavors of the other ingredients. Enjoy a satisfying lunch or dinner by pairing this restaurant style methi paneer with roti, paratha or naan.

What is Methi Paneer

Methi Paneer translates to a dish made with fenugreek leaves and paneer. Methi is the Hindi word for fenugreek leaves and Paneer is the Indian cottage cheese, that is firm, fresh and does not melt.

Methi paneer can be simply sautéed fenugreek leaves with aromatics and paneer like a dry or semi-dry version or a rich curry or gravy version. The recipe I share is a restaurant style curry variant. I have also posted the richer Methi Malai Paneer which is a completely different and unique recipe than this one.

Many years back I started making this curry recipe. Decades ago, I had made Methi Mushroom, after adapting it from Jigg Kalra’s book, Prashad – Cooking with Indian Masters.

Then later using the same recipe with a few adaptations, I started making this methi paneer recipe.

Since this methi paneer is a tomato-based gravy, please use tomatoes which are ripe, red and not sour. If sour tomatoes are used, then the gravy will also become sour and won’t taste good.

Apart from tomatoes even onions, curd and cream are added in the gravy. So the final taste is like a restaurant style gravy.

There are hints of bitterness coming in the gravy from fresh methi leaves. Since we do not get very bitter fenugreek leaves here, I add them directly. But for very bitter fenugreek leaves, you can use the following tip.

How to reduce bitterness in fenugreek leaves

First pluck the fenugreek leaves from the stems. Rinse the leaves very well in water 3 to 4 times or more as needed. Drain all the water.

Chop the leaves. Sprinkle some salt on them. Mix well and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes. Then squeeze the methi leaves with your hands and then add in the recipe. This way much bitterness can be removed from methi leaves.

Remember that before you proceed with the recipe, pluck the methi leaves from the their stems. Rinse them well in water and then finely chop them.

Usually I get one or two bunches of methi leaves from the market. I pluck the leaves and keep them in an airtight box in the fridge. The leaves stay good for about 10 days.

Then I simply rinse them, chop them and add to the dish. It is more easy this way and takes less time to make any recipe with fenugreek leaves.

Serve methi paneer with roti, naan or paratha. It also goes well with steamed rice, jeera rice or saffron rice.

How to make Methi Paneer

Preparation

1. Firstly rinse and chop 2 large tomatoes (240 grams). No need to blanch tomatoes.

2. Without adding any water grind or blend to get a smooth tomato puree. If using ready tomato puree, then set aside 1 cup tomato puree.

3. In a separate small bowl, whisk ¼ cup fresh curd till smooth. Keep aside. Do not use sour curd.

Sautéing Aromatics

4. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a pan. Add 2 cloves, 2 green cardamoms, 1 black cardamom, 1 inch cinnamon and 1 small to medium tej patta (Indian bay leaf). Fry for some seconds till the spices splutter and become fragrant.

5. Now add ⅓ cup tightly packed chopped onions.

6. Begin to stir and saute the onions on a low to medium heat.

7. Sauté stirring often till the onions start turning golden or getting caramelized.

8. Now add ½ tablespoon of ginger-garlic paste.

9. Mix and saute ginger-garlic paste for some seconds or till the raw aroma of both ginger and garlic goes away.

10. Then add 1 or 2 green chilies, slit or chopped.

Sautéing Tomatoes

11. Add the tomato puree.

12. Stir and mix well.

13. Then add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon red chili powder and 1 teaspoon coriander powder. Stir and mix the spice powders very well with the onion-tomato masala.

14. Saute the masala, till you see some oil releasing from the sides. The masala mixture will also thicken.

Sautéing Fenugreek Leaves

15. Then add chopped fenugreek leaves.

16. Mix well.

17. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes.

Cooking Methi Gravy

18. Now switch off the heat and keep the pan on the kitchen countertop. Add the whisked curd.

19. As soon as you add curd, begin to stir quickly and very well. Make sure that the entire curd is mixed with the onion-tomato-spices masala.

20. Then add ½ cup water and mix again. You can add water as required depending on the consistency you want in the gravy.

21. Keep the pan on stovetop and keep the heat to a low. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer the gravy/curry for 8 to 10 minutes on a low heat. Do keep a check.

22. After 8 to 10 minutes the curry will thicken and you will also see oil specks on top.

Making Methi Paneer

23. Once the curry is ready, then add paneer cubes and salt as per taste. Stir and mix gently.

Switch off the heat. After you add the paneer cubes then don’t cook them for more than a minute. Otherwise the paneer becomes chewy and dense.

24. Add a pinch or two of garam masala powder or Punjabi garam masala powder.

25. Mix again.

26. Lastly add 2 to 3 tablespoons light cream or cooking cream or low-fat cream. Instead of light cream you can also add 1 tablespoon of heavy cream or whipping cream.

27. Mix the cream with the rest of the gravy. Cream is optional and you can skip it if you want.

28. Serve methi paneer with roti, phulka, paratha, poori or naan or jeera rice or steamed basmati rice.

More Paneer Recipes

• Palak Paneer
• Methi Malai Paneer
• Methi Chaman
• Malai Kofta
• Paneer Butter Masala

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This Methi Paneer Post from the blog archives first published in September 2016 has been republished and updated on 22 July 2021.