Kadhai Paneer is a delicious paneer recipe made from paneer, bell peppers and onions simmered in tomato onion based sauce and freshly roasted and ground spice blend is added to flavor the dish. Enjoy it with rice or roti.
Heat up a small pan, add the whole spices and dry roast them until the spices are fragrant and lightly toasted for 3 minutes. Let it cool down.
Transfer the spices into a spice grinder and grind it to a powder. Leave it aside.
Sauce
Add some oil in a pan on medium heat. Add in cumin seeds and let it sizzle. Add bay leaf.
Add chopped onion and saute them for couple of minutes until softened and they look translucent
Add in the grated ginger and garlic and sauté it, add in the tomato paste. Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala, kadhai masala, kasuri methi and salt to taste.
Add ½ cup water. Mix everything well. Let it simmer on slow heat.
Vegetables and Paneer
In another pan take a tbsp oil and cook bell peppers, onions on high heat. Quick stir fry. I add a pinch of turmeric and red chili powder in this step. It gives it some color.
Do not overcook the vegetables, they should have a slight crunch. Add paneer too.
Take them off the heat.
Assembly
Mix the vegetables and paneer in the sauce. Stir everything.
Once the sauce coats the vegetables and paneer, you can turn off the heat. You can adjust the thickness of the sauce.
Garnish it with cilantro and Serve it with naan or roti.
Notes
It is usually a dry kind of subji. You can adjust the water in the sauce to your liking.
Toasting the spices and grinding them fresh is a very important step. You can prepare kadhai masala a day in advance.