Mutter Halloumi
Mutter paneer is very well-known Indian dish made with green peas and paneer with spices. It’s creamy and delicious with rotis or rice. I have replaced paneer with Halloumi to bring some twist to the recipe. Not a fan of halloumi, just use paneer or tofu.
The most favorite and known paneer dish for everyone is usually palak paneer or paneer tikka masala. (I make palak paneer with halloumi too). Who doesn’t love the most popular paneer? Every time we go out to Indian restaurant, we definitely order some paneer dishes.
Mutter paneer shows up on dinner table mostly during winters when fresh peas are found at the markets in abundance. My mom would make so many different dishes from mutter. She even learnt to preserve them and freeze them back in India so that we can use mutter off season as well. In India, we eat very seasonally. So, people always use fresh peas or any other fresh produce.
If you didn’t guess by now, ‘mutter’ in hindi means green peas. If you haven’t tried this lilva kachori recipe, then you should check it out, it uses green peas.
So, last weekend when I went cherry picking, we picked up some fresh sweet peas as well. They were so sweet, I had to pick them. Usually, I make dishes with green peas with frozen ones. It’s easier and less time consuming. But when I bought fresh ones I had to immediately get to cooking with them.
In this recipe I have replaced paneer with halloumi. Do you remember the visit to Turkish grocery store I shared few days ago n Instagram stories. I bought some halloumi and decided to give it a try in this recipe. We really like halloumi. If you like halloumi you will love this recipe. If you don’t like halloumi, then go ahead and use paneer or make it vegan by using tofu. Either way the base recipe is the same and it will still taste delicious. Halloumi is also non-melting cheese similar to paneer, it also has similar chewiness. Halloumi is slightly salty cheese. Grilled halloumi in salads, or sandwiches or just drizzled with honey taste awesome.
Mutter Paneer recipe uses same ingredient base as of other north Indian dishes I have shared here before, just slightly different application. It starts with cooking all the aromatics like ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes in a pan and then blended together to make a sauce which would be the base of the recipe. I usually use cashews but, in this recipe, I have replaced cashews with almonds. Some other ingredients include tomato paste as it gives that intense tomato flavor, regular spices from the masala dabba etc. I like to sprinkle cardamom in all my north Indian recipes at the very end. It rounds up the flavors so well. Lot of people add heavy cream to make this dish enriching. I do not use heavy cream when I make it on regular basis. Occasionally I might add some heavy cream, or you can also add some sour cream, coconut milk etc. It’s not necessary but if you want to make it more luscious.
Lastly, like many or all Indian dishes garnishing it with cilantro is a must. Remember that halloumi is salty cheese, I would suggest taste it first and add salt accordingly in this dish.
Mutter Halloumi
Ingredients
Onion – tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 medium onion
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger
- 1-2 green chilies
- 2 medium tomatoes
- 2 tbsp almond or cashews
- 1 tbsp ghee or butter use oil for vegan
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/2 tsp honey or sugar
- Salt to taste
- 8 oz halloumi chopped into cubes or sliced
- 1 cup green peas
- Cilantro
- Lemon wedge
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan, once the oil is hot, add in the green chilies, ginger, garlic, onions and saute it until onions turn translucent.
- Add tomatoes and almonds at this time and let it cook for few more minutes until tomatoes break down.
- Once the tomatoes are done, let the mixture cool down and then blend it using a blender until smooth in consistency. Set aside.
- In a pan on medium heat, warm some ghee or butter, (if you are making it vegan use oil).
- Add in cumin seeds, once they crackle add bay leaf followed by onion-tomato mix. Add 2 tbsp tomato paste as well.
- Add in all the spices like red chili powder, turmeric, coriander cumin powder and garam masala, salt.
- If you are adding honey or sugar, you can add it now. Mix everything well and when the spices and ghee starts leaving the sides of the pan, add 1 cup of water.
- Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 minutes and add in the halloumi or paneer pieces along with peas. Sprinkle cardamom powder.
- Let it simmer for another minute and sprinkle chopped cilantro and squeeze a little bit of lemon if you like.
- Serve it hot with rotis or steamed rice.
Notes
- If you like you can grill halloumi on medium heat just until it gets brown grill marks. Remove it and set aside until its added in.
- If you are using fresh peas, you want either blanch them in hot water for few minutes or microwave them for few minutes in water or you can use frozen peas as well.
- If you want to use paneer, then leave the paneer at room temperature in warm water for 10 minutes. It becomes nice and squidgy.
- Vegan – Use oil and grilled tofu.