Paneer Pasanda Recipe (Restaurant Style)

Paneer Pasanda recipe is made with a sweet and spicy filling, stuffed between two pieces of the popular Indian cottage cheese a.k.a paneer, then dipped, fried and served in a lusciously smooth onion-tomato gravy. Make this delicious dish for your next celebration and witness the power of its excellence. While this restaurant-style Paneer Pasanda recipe is time-consuming, it is absolutely worth the hassle.

About Paneer Pasanda

Paneer pasanda is a rich and delicious dish of shallow fried stuffed paneer sandwiches in a smooth, creamy onion-tomato based gravy.

If you have ever wanted to try making this delicious dish, you may have been put off by the extensive preparation. I don’t blame you!

But while paneer pasanda recipe is not for everyday cooking, it is a wonderful dish to serve for special occasions.

It doesn’t hurt that making this dish with friends or family is both fun AND greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to make.

If you’re craving the flavors of this stuffed paneer delicacy but don’t have the time or patience to make it, you can simply fry the paneer without stuffing it first.

The gravy is simple to assemble (like my Paneer Butter Masala recipe) and is similar to Makhani Gravy, except it has the addition of fried onion paste.

For an even simpler version of this recipe, feel free to use store bought fried onions for the paste. Just note that the flavor and quality of fresh ingredients is basically always going to be superior to store bought.

While this recipe is already a restaurant-style version of paneer pasanda, you can further develop the flavors by employing the dhungar method.

For photos and step-by-step instructions on how to create the smoky perfumed flavor of dhungar cooking, please refer to my Dal Makhani post.

Serve Paneer Pasanda with naan, roti, tandoori roti or parathas or roomali roti. This creamy and rich paneer dish also goes well with Jeera Rice or Veg Pulao.

How to Make Paneer Pasanda

While this restaurant-style paneer takes awhile to make, the steps are quite simple to execute. First, start by preparing the ingredients for your gravy.

Make Onion and Tomato-Cashew Paste

1. In a frying pan or kadai (wok) or a saucepan, take the following ingredients:

• 1.75 cups roughly chopped tomatoes
• 10 to 12 cashews, halved or roughly chopped
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• 2 green cardamoms
• 2 single thin strands of mace (optional)
• 2 cloves
• 1 cup water

2. On a low to medium heat, stir and simmer this mixture till the tomatoes soften.

3. When the tomatoes soften, switch off the heat. Some stock will be left in the pan; we will use it while blending or grinding the tomatoes.

Let this mixture cool enough to handle before you blend or grind.

4. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pan and add 1 heaping cup of chopped onions.

Tip: To cut back on dishes, feel free to move the tomato mix to a small bowl to cool and re-use the same pan.

5. Stir and sauté the onions on a low to medium-low heat. Add a pinch of salt for the onions to brown faster.

6. Once the onions become light golden, switch off the heat. Let the onions cool. 

Tip: Don’t brown the onions too much, or you’ll risk the gravy becoming bitter.

7. Add the cooled fried onions to a high-speed blender or grinder jar. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons water.

8. Blend or grind the sautéed onions to a fine, smooth paste and set aside.

9. In the same blender or grinder, add the cooked and cooled tomato-cashew-spice mixture along with the stock from the pan.

There is no need to add any extra water while blending or grinding.

10. Grind to a smooth and fine consistency. There should be no cashew chunks or small bit and pieces in the paste. Set this paste aside.

Make Paneer Sandwich Stuffing

11. In a bowl or plate, take the ingredients listed below:

• 2 to 2.5 tablespoons finely crumbled or grated paneer (you can substitute grated processed cheese or cheddar cheese instead of paneer)
• 1 tablespoon raisins, chopped
• 6 to 8 cashews, finely chopped (approximately 2 tablespoons)
• 1 or 2 green chilies, chopped (about 1 teaspoon)
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
• ½ tablespoon chopped mint leaves

12. Now add the following ground spices:

• ¼ teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt (or season to taste)

13. Mix everything evenly and keep aside. Check the taste and add more of the spices and salt if required.

Tip: You can make the stuffing more spicy by increasing the amount of green chilies or red chili powder. If you like a bit of tang, add a few drops of lemon juice or sprinkle in some dry mango powder (amchur powder) or dry pomegranate powder (anardana powder).

Assemble and Make Stuffed Paneer Triangles

14. I used a round of homemade paneer for the pasanda and sliced it into triangles, as you would cut a cake. You can also slice them in squares or rectangles.

Tip: For neater pieces, use a cookie cutter.

15. Separate slices carefully. Add any crumbled bits of paneer that fall off to the stuffing mix.

16. Now hamburger bun slice each triangle into two halves, working gently to keep the paneer from breaking.

17. Repeat with all pieces of the paneer.

18. Now place some of the stuffing on the paneer triangle.

19. Cover it with its top triangular slice gently. Don’t press. One paneer sandwich is ready.

20. Repeat to complete remaining paneer sandwiches

Fry Paneer Sandwiches

21. In a bowl, make a paste of ½ cup cornstarch (known as cornflour in India) with 4 tablespoons water.

Tip: For a healthier version, I suggest to use yellow colored maize flour (makki ka atta) or gram flour (besan). Though note that the sandwiches will be yellow colored and the taste will be different.

You might have to adjust the quantity of water if using these flours. Make a medium consistency paste with them.

22. Dip the paneer sandwich slice in the batter.

23. Turn over and coat from all sides evenly. You can also use a spoon or small tongs to coat the slices. Make sure the stuffing side is also coated with the batter.

If you cannot turn the paneer sandwich in the batter, then use a spoon to pour the batter to cover all surfaces.

24. Place the paneer slices in a pan with 4 tablespoons of medium hot oil for shallow frying.

25. Repeating the above steps #22 and #23, place more paneer triangles in the hot oil.

Be sure to stir the corn starch paste before you coat each new set of paneer triangles, as the corn starch settles down.

26. When the base gets some golden specks or edges, then turn over and continue to shallow fry.

If you have batter coated the paneer triangles evenly and also coated the filling sides, the filling mixture won’t fall in the oil, while frying. It will be sealed inside.

Note: You can also deep fry these paneer sandwiches if you prefer.

27. I fried from all sides to ensure that the cornstarch coating was well cooked. If you don’t want to deal with this process, then just add enough oil to the pan so that it reaches halfway up the sides of your sandwiches and flip once.

28. Drain the fried paneer sandwiches on paper towels to remove any excess oil. Keep aside.

Make Paneer Pasanda Gravy

29. In the same pan as you cooked the tomatoes, add 1 to 1.5 tablespoons oil.

Tip: Cut back on waste by using the same oil in which the paneer sandwiches were fried.

Add 1 tej patta and ½ teaspoon shahi jeera (caraway seeds). Fry till the shahi jeera crackles. Substitute jeera (cumin seeds) if shahi jeera is not there.

30. Add 1 to 1.5 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste.

31. Stir and sauté on low heat for a few seconds till the raw aroma of ginger-garlic goes away.

32. Now add the tomato-cashew-spice paste. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes on a low to medium heat.

33. Stir and then add the fried onion paste.

34. Mix very well to combine and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes on a low to medium heat.

35. Add the below listed spices to the curry base:

• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon coriander powder
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder or deghi mirch

Mix and stir very well.

36. Then add 1 cup water.

37. Stir and mix again until the mixture is even.

38. Simmer gravy on a low heat. if the gravy splutters a lot, then cover the pan with a lid.

39. Simmer the gravy till you see some oil specks on the top. The gravy will also thicken. This takes about 4 to 5 minutes on a low to medium heat. Taste and add salt as required.

40. Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon sugar (or to taste).

41. Stir and then add the following ingredients:

• ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder
• 1 teaspoon crushed dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), crushed
• 2 tablespoons light cream or low fat cream (I used the Indian brand of Amul cream)

Note: If you don’t have cream, then omit it. The gravy will still taste good.

42. Stir till the cream is mixed evenly with the rest of the gravy. Switch off the heat. Check the taste and add more of the salt or sugar if required as per your taste.

43. Now you can place the paneer triangles or pasanda in the gravy. Or else you can place them in a serving tray or plate and pour the gravy from top as shown in the final photos.

44. Coat the Paneer Pasanda in the gravy.

Serve Paneer Pasanda gravy hot, garnished with some fresh coriander leaves. My favorite things to serve with this dish are Naan, Tandoori Roti, Chapati, Paratha, Jeera Rice or Veg Pulao.

FAQs

This Paneer Pasanda recipe from the blog archives first published in March 2015 has been updated and republished on December 2022.