Paneer Tikka Salad
When you visit any Indian restaurant and wonder what tandoori food is. The word Tandoor often translates to the cooking method and also the huge cylindrical clay pot used for cooking and baking where your charred naans, chicken ‘tikkas’ are often cooked and served from. It’s a very traditional Indian oven. Often charcoal or wood is used and that’s what gives it that amazing flavor to the food cooked in a Tandoor.
Every year in summer, I will ask B to build a Tandoor oven in our backyard. It’s not that difficult to build your own Tandoor in your backyard. Maybe one day we will have our own.
But, right now we will make use of the barbecue grill. I use charcoal grill, and would highly suggest you do so. You want that charred smoky charcoal flavors in your tikka.
One of our favorite dishes to order while dining at North Indian restaurants is paneer tikka. That’s the best alternative to chicken tikka for vegetarians. If you eat meat, I would suggest try this paneer tikka as it is very delicious. It uses same techniques used to cook meat dishes, specially tandoori chicken.
It does not require lot of time in preparation and you have an amazing dish ready in on time. The smoky charred flavors from charcoal are unbeatable. May I say that again and again. You can enjoy paneer tikka as it is as an appetizer, or on salad or as wraps. The choice is limitless. It makes great build your party food. You can prep everything a night before and let people get engaged in helping you skewer them and grill them as you go. Anyways, barbecuing is slow process. It works as charm while entertaining people over.
You can let people build their own salad and choose what they want to add. You can also add some rotis, I prefer roomali rotis, or tortillas on the side for people to make wraps. To make a wrap- add some salad, remove tikkas from skewers, add some tomatoes, pickled onions, drizzle some lemon juice, chaat masala, and green chutney.
By the way, if you have time you can let it marinate a night before. You can use homemade paneer, but store bought also does a great job in making delicious tikkas. If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water for atleast 20-30 minutes. If you use metal skewers they should be strong to take up the heating conditions.
Cook it on stove top, oven or barbecue grill. If you want the green chutney recipe, its here
This dish makes a great ‘build your own’ party food and it can be filling too. That’s what I love about them.
Paneer Tikka Salad
Ingredients
- 350 grams paneer cut into big cubes
- ½ cup green bell peppers, chopped into cubes
- ½ cup red bell peppers , chopped into cubes
- ½ cup red onions, chopped into cubes
Marinade
- ¼ cup thick Greek style yogurt
- 1 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp green chili and ginger paste optional
- 1 tsp tandoori masala or garam masala
- ½ tsp red chili powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp kasuri methi optional
- Salt to taste
Garnish/Toppings
- Chaat masala for sprinkling
- Lemon wedges
Salad
- 1 bowl Salad Mix Romaine lettuce, ice berg lettuce, arugula, spinach
- 1/4 cup Pickled onions/raw onions
- 1/2 cup Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 Firm ripe mango, sliced
- some kind of bread naan bites, roti
Instructions
Paneer & Vegetables
- If you are using store bought paneer, thaw it few hours at room temperature. Ideally, I put the whole block of paneer in some warm water. It not only softens it up but speeds up the process. Chop all the vegetables, in the same sized cubes for even cooking.
Marinade
- Mix all the ingredients of the marinade in a bowl. Use bigger bowl than you might need as we will add in the paneer, and vegetables to it.
- Take cubed paneer, bell peppers, onions and add them to the marinade. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes.
- While that's marinating, if you are using wooden skewers then dip them in water for the same time or little longer. This way we will prevent the wooden skewers from burning on high temperature.
- Once it that has been marinating 20 minutes, skewer the paneer cubes followed by bell peppers and onions one by one.
- You can arrange them as you like, if you like more peppers do so. There is not real right way of doing it.
- If you are grilling them, grease the grill/pan with oil and place the skewers on it. Let them cook for a couple of minutes and turn them on the other side and cook them until you see charred spots on both sides.
- Remove them on a platter.
- In separate serving plates, add some greens, cherry tomatoes, pickled onions, chopped mango, plate the skewers on it, sprinkle lemon juice and some chaat masala. Drizzle some green chutney. Serve some naan bites on the side. Enjoy it as a salad.
- You can also add some rotis, I prefer roomali rotis, or tortillas on the side for people to make wraps. To make a wrap- add some salad, remove tikkas from skewers, add some tomatoes, pickled onions, drizzle some lemon juice, chaat masala, and green chutney. Fold it and enjoy!
Notes
XO, Devangi