Now, I love paneer. It’s such an amazing comfort food. The paneer whatever dish you are cooking absorbs the flavours like a sponge. Also paneer offers a great cost effective dish as a single pack from the supermarket usually costs around or below the £2 mark and feeds two people comfortably.

So to celebrate Diwali I cooked one of my favourite dishes. I’ve eaten this dish in the Mowgli chain of restaurants and without blowing my own trumpet I can confidently say I’ve recreated this flavoursome dish.

Ingredients-

4 tbsp of vegetable oil, 1 tsp of cumin seeds, 2 onions finely diced, 1 large green chilli pierced a few times, 2 large heaped tbsp of garlic and ginger paste, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, 1/4 tsp of chilli powder, 1 tbsp of garam masala, 1 tsp of ground coriander, 1/4 tsp of ground fenugreek, 1 tbsp of tomato purée, 200ml (1/2 a tin) of chopped tomatoes, 1 cup of water, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar, a handful of fresh spinach, 1/2 a cup of frozen peas, a standard supermarket packet of paneer cut into small cubes, 2 green chillies finely diced & a handful of chopped coriander.

Prep time 5 minutes, cooking time roughly 35 minutes.

Method –

Heat the vegetable oil in a pan. Once the oil is visibly hot add in the cumin seeds. Allow them to jump around the pan for 30 seconds or so to flavour the oil.

At this point the pan will smell nice and aromatic. Add in the chopped onions & pierced green chilli. Fry off for 3 / 5 minutes until the onions are nice and translucent.

Once the onions have changed colour add in the garlic & ginger paste. Stir this in and cook for a further 30 seconds or so.

Follow the ginger & garlic paste with the ground coriander, ground fenugreek, turmeric, chilli powder & tomato purée. Give the pan a good stir ensuring all the ingredients are mixed well.

Cook this mixture for a couple of minutes giving the pan the odd stir, this will bubble and pop but it’s the start of bringing all the flavours together.

Add in the chopped tomatoes, cup of water along with the salt & sugar. Stir and leave to simmer for 15 / 20 minutes returning to the pan occasionally for a stir.

After 15 / 20 minutes the sauce will have cooked down to an amazing thick gravy.

Add in the spinach leaves & frozen peas. Cook for a further 3 minutes until the spinach has stopped thinking it’s the hardest leaf on the planet and wilted down into the sauce.

Once the spinach has wilted add in the coriander………….

Followed by the paneer & diced green chillies.

You only needed to cook the paneer for 3 or so minutes as you want it to retain its shape and texture without breaking down.

When I started to prep this dish I put a small pan of rice on. This came to the boil, took it off the heat and left it covered to steam and become fluffy at the back of the hob doing its thing.

I served the paneer curry with the steamed rice along with some homemade pickle from a work colleague and a couple of shop bought breads.

Thank you for reading my ramblings if you have, much appreciated.