Paneer lababdar as the name suggests is a creamy, velvety gravy with silky, soft paneer cubes soaked in it. This recipe is very rich and definitely not meant for the people who are on a diet. But it is not only heavy on butter and cream, this dish is full of flavors and various aromatic spices as well.
most of the people only restrict eating it at a restaurant, but you can easily prepare this recipe at home too. The ingredients are very simple and so is the procedure. So without any further due, let’s get started with the recipe.
Ingredients:
- For the tomato and cashew paste-
- Tomatoes- 250 gm (roughly chopped)
- Cashews- 10-15
- Ginger- ½ inch (chopped)
- Garlic- 2-3 cloves
- Green cardamom- 1
- Clove- 2
Other ingredients:
- Paneer- 200 gm cubed+2 tbsp. grated paneer
- Onion- 100 gm (finely chopped)
- Bay leaf or tej patta- 1
- Green chili- 2
- Cumin powder- ½ tsp.
- Coriander powder- ½ tsp.
- Red chili powder- ½ tsp.
- Garam masala- ¼ tsp.
- Low fat cream- ¼ cup
- Kasuri methi- 1 tsp.
- Butter- 2 tbsp.
- Sugar- ½ to ¼ tsp.
- Water- 1.25 cups
- Coriander leaves- 1 tbsp. (Chopped)
- Salt to taste
Procedure:
For the tomato paste–
1. To a small pan add the chopped tomatoes, cashews, ginger, garlic, cardamom, clove and ½ cup water. Simmer this mixture on a low flame till the tomatoes are cooked. If you see that the water is drying up but the tomatoes are still undercooked, then add a few tbsp. water to them and cook them further.
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2. Once the mixture has cooked through, let it cool down and then pour it into a blender.
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3. Grind the mixture to a smooth paste like consistency. Make sure that there are no tomato or cashew chunks in it. You can also add some water if needed.
4. Keep this tomato and cashew paste aside.
For the gravy–
1. in a kadhai, add the butter (add 1 tbsp. oil as well in order to prevent the butter from burning). When the butter has warmed up a little add the tej patta and cook it for a few seconds.
2. now add the chopped onions and mix well. cook the onions till they are golden in color.
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3. Once the onions are cooked, add the tomato-cashew paste to it. The masala will splatter a bit so be careful.
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4. Now add the cumin powder, coriander powder and red chili powder and cook it through.
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5. When the masala starts to come together and leaving the oil on the sides, it’s time to add the water to it.
6. Add the remaining 1 cup water and stir the mix really well.
7. Add the slit green chilies.
8. Let the gravy simmer for a few minutes and then add the salt and the sugar.
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9. Add the cubed as well as the grated paneer to the gravy and let it cook for a minute or two.
10. Sprinkle the kasuri methi and the garam masala and stir it again.
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11. Add the cream and mix it with the gravy.
12. Garnish this creamy paneer lababdar with chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve it hot with naan or jeera rice.
