Paneer makhani recipe with step by step photos – succulently cooked cottage cheese cubes in a smooth sauce of tomatoes and cream, which is lightly spiced with a hint of tang and sweetness.
This is simple and easy to make delicious paneer makhani recipe. The flavors of this dish is more home style and its not a restaurant style recipe. The gravy is lightly spiced and taste good.
The makhani gravy or sauce is usually made up of pureed tomatoes, ginger, garlic, red chili powder and cream. The same sauce is also used for Paneer butter masala And Paneer makhanwala. basically both are same for me. Just that the spicing varies from recipe to recipe. In some variations, cashew paste is also added. Cashew paste does help in giving a smooth, creamy texture to the gravy.
In this paneer makhani recipe, I have not used cashew paste. I did get a few requests from readers, asking me to post some Punjabi recipes without the use of expensive stuff like cashew, almonds etc. Hence this paneer makhani post.
The recipe is very easy to make. You can use ready-made tomato puree too. Paneer can be brought ready from out or you can make paneer at home. I always make paneer at home. However, this time a few of the paneer cubes broke in the gravy. I cooked the milk too much while making the paneer. Sometimes I am also in a hurry and impatient to cook and finish a task.
Paneer makhani is best served with rotis, parathas or with naans. I served with naan and a side veggie salad. You can also serve paneer makhani with jeera rice.
How to make paneer makhani
Preparation
1. First rinse and chop the tomatoes (250 grams or 4 to 5 medium ripe and red tomatoes).
2. In a blender or grinder make a smooth puree of the chopped tomatoes. No need to add any water while blending the tomatoes.
3. Crush the ginger & garlic in a mortar-pestle to a paste (1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste, or ½ inch ginger + 3-4 small garlic).
Making paneer makhani
4. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a pan. Add 1 tej patta (Indian bay leaf) and then the crushed ginger-garlic. Saute till the raw aroma of the crushed ginger-garlic goes away.
5. Add the tomato puree.
6. Stir well and add ½ tsp red chilli powder. Keep on sauteing till the fat leaves the sides of the tomato paste.
7. Meanwhile chop 200 grams cottage cheese in cubes, squares or triangles.
8. After 15 minutes on a low flame, the tomatoes and spices have sauteed well and the fat leaving the sides of the mixture is clearly seen.
9. Now add 1.5 cups water.
10. stir very well and let the gravy/sauce come to a gentle simmer.
11. Simmer the gravy till it reduces and thickens a bit.
12. Add ½ inch ginger julienne and 1-2 slit green chilies. Simmer for a minute.
13. Stir and then add salt, ½ tsp crushed kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves) and ½ to 1 tsp sugar. Also add the paneer cubes and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
14. Add 2 to 3 tbsp cream. I used amul cream.
15. Stir gently but well so that the cream is mixed uniformly with the gravy without breaking the paneer cubes. Switch off the flame.
16. Lastly sprinkle ¼ tsp garam masala and again stir gently. Check the seasonings and add more salt or sugar if required.
18. Serve paneer makhani hot with rotis, parathas or naan or with jeera rice.
More Paneer recipes
Paneer Makhani
Ingredients
- 200 grams paneer (cottage cheese)
- 250 grams ripe and red tomatoes or 4 to 5 medium ripe and red tomatoes
- 2 to 3 tablespoon cream - low fat 25% to 35% fat
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 1 tej patta (indian bay leaf)
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste or ½ inch ginger + 3-4 small garlic crushed to paste in a mortar-pestle
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder or kashmiri red chilli powder or deghi mirch
- 1 to 2 green chillies, slit (hari mirch)
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder or tandoori masala powder
- ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar - add as required* check notes
- ½ inch ginger, julienned
- ½ teaspoon kasuri methi leaves, crushed (dry fenugreek leaves)
- 1.5 cups water
- salt as required
Instructions
making tomato puree
- First rinse and chop the tomatoes (250 grams or 4 to 5 medium ripe and red tomatoes).
- In a blender or grinder make a smooth puree of the chopped tomatoes. No need to add any water while blending the tomatoes.
- Keep the tomato puree aside.
making paneer makhani
- Melt butter in a pan. First add the tejpatta/bay leaf and saute for a few seconds till aromatic.
- Then add the crushed ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw aroma of the ginger-garlic goes away.
- Add the tomato puree and stir well.
- Now add the red chili powder and saute this mixture till the fat begins to leave the side of the tomato paste. Takes about 14 to 15 on a low flame. Keep on stirring often.
- When you see the tomato mixture clumping together and the fat leaving the sides, then add water.
- Stir and simmer till the gravy or sauce thickens a bit. Takes about 7 to 8 mins on a low flame.
- Then add the slit green chilies and ginger julienne. Stir and simmer for a minute.
- Add sugar, salt and crushed kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves).
- Stir and then add the paneer cubes.
- Simmer the gravy for 2 to 3 minutes till the paneer cubes are cooked.
- Lastly add cream and gently stir. Switch off the flame and then sprinkle with garam masala. Give a gentle stir again.
- Serve the paneer makhani with rotis, naan or jeera rice.
I like to make vegetarian Indian meals for our friends. This dish is always the star of the show. It is easy to make and so tasty.
thank you.
Absolutely delicious! I highly recommend, and very easy to prepare. Excellent recipe 🙂
Tried this recipe at home, everyone loved it. Very simple and easy to make.
thanks piya for the feedback and review. happy cooking.
Thats a very well explained recipe.. tried it n loved d outcome
Thanks Sweeny for your positive feedback.
Dassana thank you so much. Tried this recipe today and it turned out to be delicious. The best part is the ease in the process of making it. All the ingredients are easily available and your pictures helped me to gauge that i don’t go wrong.
Welcome Priyanka. Glad to know this. Thanks for your positive feedback.
Dassana
Can i keep tomato-ginger-garlic paste in the freezer and use for recipes that ask for little or no onion?
Thanks
Sharmila
avoid tomato. just make ginger-garlic paste. tomatoes can spoil. any paste or puree made with tomatoes stays good for a few days only. if preservatives are added, then these can be preserved for months too. for ginger-garlic paste, you can add some oil, a bit of salt and some turmeric, to preserve it for more than a month. you can check the post on ginger-garlic paste, i have already shared on website.
Thanks so much Dassana!! I read somewhere that onion-tomato paste (which will have ginger-garlic too) can be kept in the freezer. I understand now i cannot do this either?? 🙁 What do you recommend? I am a working mother, so need some things readily available so cooking gets done in a jiffy
sharmila, for onion paste, you can fry onions in bulk. make a paste and refrigerate. in any dish, when you add this paste, it tastes good. for ease of frying onions, what you do is thinly slice the onions. then sundry it for a few hours. then fry it. this way the onions will get browned quickly. avoid tomato paste or tomato puree. preservatives have to be added in these for a longer shelf time. for coconut, you can grate 1 coconut in your free time and then freeze it. you can also make onion-tomato gravy paste. just brown onions, tomato, ginger, garlic in some oil and then grind it. this can then be freezer in ice cube tray and you can use whenever you want. i somehow forgot to mention this to you.
hope this helps.
Thank you SO much Dassana. You are a star 🙂
welcome sharmila and thanks much ????
Hi,will try this paneer recipe today as my son loves paneer but is allergic to cashews.. Was looking for a paneer recipe without cashews..
Sheeba, I hope your son like this recipe. it taste yum.
If i have to cook 1kg of paneer. Should i use i kg of tomatoes.
1 kg will be fine.
Easy n yummy recipe
Beautiful. Absolutely delicious. Thank you so much for sharing this and so many other recipes. You make cooking so much easier and something to look forward to instead of something that I used to run away from.
Welcome Shruti. Thanks for your encouraging feedback.
i love paneer …………
Dear Dassana
Am a great fan of yours and have been following you after making your atta bread . But my query today is another tough one . We have just found that my husband is allergic to tomatoes , milk and milk products and a couple of other things . My problem is how to substitute tomatoes in our punjabi curries also in rajmah etc . Any suggestions please . If I use mango powder how will I get the right colour and the taste would also go for a toss . Help please .
Renu
renu, difficult as usually curd is used instead of tomatoes. so here you cannot even use curd. there is no substitute as such for tomatoes. to give volume in the gravy, you can add onion paste. even onion based gravies taste good. but you need to saute the onion paste till its golden. then you can add a bit of amchur powder for sourness. even with fried onion paste (where sliced onions are fried till golden brown and then made into a paste) any gravy tastes good. a totally different option is to add grated coconut paste or coconut milk like its done in the konkan, goan and south indian cuisine. even rajma in a coconut based paste or coconut milk tastes good. hope this helps.
Thank you so much for the recipe! 🙂 I have never cooked a paneer dish before, infact I hardly cook 😀 Your recipe turned out amazing and everyone just loved it !! 🙂
welcome swathi 🙂 thanks for positive views. glad your family liked the paneer makhani recipe.
Thanks so much for sharing this nut free recipe. My daughter loves paneer but can’t eat the usual butter masala recipes as she is allergic to cashew nuts. This has been very well received! I regularly try your recipes, with much success, as being a British born Bengali, I like to try dishes from different regions and need help cooking authentic Indian recipes. Keep up the good work!
very pleased to know this. thanks shanta for your good wishes and positive views, god bless you.
Hey!
I can’t thank you enough for the recipe. Paneer is my husband’s favourite but I am not a pro at cooking. I simply followed your recipe and it turned out absolutely brilliant. Very similar to the restaurant quality we get in Delhi. Being a north Indian, I can vouch that it tastes very authentic.
Would have loved to upload a pic but don’t know how.
thank you nidhi. glad to know. also thanks for the feedback on the paneer makhani recipe. i used to share pics on fb first, but stopped now due to lack of time. if you want you can send me the pics at [email protected]
Lovely dish dear. My family polished off in minutes ? !! Keep posting such wonderful dishes..
pleased to know this sheena, thanks for positive views.
thanks Dasanna, the recipe was superb.. ekdam restsurant style.
thanks so much priyanka for positive feedback.
Awesome easy n wonderful recipe…my family loved it…:) A big thank you…
welcome saloni, glad your family loved the paneer makhani recipe. thanks for positive feedback.
Hey Dassana, I’m a big fan of your
recipes.
Thanks a lot!!
i have no cream …. so what should I add to skip cream….
thanks. you can add milk powder, just add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon as milk powder can sweeten the gravy too much.
I don’t generally leave behind comments on blogs. Just get the info I want and dash off. But this was too good to not let you know and appreciate. It was super simple and my daughters really loved it. Thank you Dassana for the wonderful veg recipes.
welcome sameera and thank you for your positive feedback 🙂
I tried it last week and it was really good….I kinda of reduced the sauce a little too much, but it ended up being really good anyways….Next time I make it I will triple the recipe:D…..Thank you so much for the recipe:D
welcome neena and thankyou for your kind words 🙂