Paneer Jalfrezi is a quick and easy stir fry with cottage cheese infused with all the aromatic Indian spices. It’s an absolute classic from the repertoire of rich Indian cuisine.
As promised, today I bring to you an Indian spiced all veggie stir fry recipe which is loaded with all the classic Indian flavors.
Soft and succulent cubes of paneer/cottage cheese are infused with aromatic spices and stir-fried with lots of sweet bell peppers which add another dimension to the flavor of this dish.
The ingredient list may seem to be long but the effort is worth and you will agree with me once you try this for yourself. Even if you are an avid meat lover, you too will ask for more because this stuff is real addictive! Mark my words!
Finally it is weekend and I am back to my personal zone and this is why I believe we all love weekend so much, isn’t it?
We can be in our personal space indulging in things we love to do and just be away from deadlines and other such scary stuffs for a while!
These 2 days are so close to our heart that I’m sure no one would want to exchange it for anything, right?
There was a phase in my life when weekend only meant sleep. Believe it or not but I used to sleep till afternoon on some Saturdays.
I think I have eventually exhausted my entire quota of sleep which is why that ‘sleep’ phase is now long gone.
Another reason for the ‘sleep‘ phase to be gone could also be that weekend is the only time which I can invest in developing recipes which I want to prepare, shoot and share with you all; so how can I waste such short a time in sleeping, ha!
We had a bonus holiday this week which is why I could make this wonderful paneer jalfrezi in the middle of the week.
This paneer jalfrezi is nothing complicated to make, you just need few handful of ingredients which I will say are pretty common in any Indian household or if you regularly cook Indian food at home.
There is nothing exotic in the list for which you would have to wait for your next supermarket trip.
Paneer jalfrezi is a quick stir fry which comes together in no time with no less deliciousness.
The blend of spices adds magical taste to the soft cubes of cottage cheese which will linger in your mouth for long.
Try this paneer jalfrezi once and it will become a family favorite immediately!
- Paneer / cottage cheese – 350 gms
- Green bell pepper – 1, medium (you can use a mix of 2 bell peppers of different colors like I used half of a green and half of a red)
- Onion – 2, large
- Tomato – 1, large
- Ginger paste – 2 tsp
- Garlic paste – 1 tsp
- Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
- Dry red chilli – 2
- Vegetable oil – 4 tbsp
- Garam masala – 1 & ½ tsp
- Cumin powder – 1 tsp
- Green chilli – 2
- Black pepper powder – ½ tsp
- Coriander powder – 1 tsp
- Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
- Tomato sauce/ketchup – 2 tbsp
- White vinegar – 2 tbsp
- Freshly chopped coriander leaves – 1 cup
- Salt to taste
- Cut the paneer into long pieces. Soak them in lightly salted boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes to keep them soft.
- Cut one onion into thin slices and chop the other one finely. Cut the tomato into long strips. Cut the bell peppers into thin long strips.
- Heat oil in a skillet and add the cumin seeds and dry red chillies to the hot oil. Saute them for a minute and then add the chopped onion.
- Saute the onion until golden brown for about 2 to 3 minutes. Then add ginger and garlic paste and stir them in.
- Then add the sliced onion and continue stirring. Add the bell pepper and continue sautéing them on medium flame for 4 to 5 minutes. I like my bell peppers a little soft which is why I cover and cook them on low for 5 minutes until they soften.
- Next add the spices – turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and Kashmiri red chilli powder. Add a splash of water and saute the masala on medium high heat for 2 minutes.
- Add sliced tomato and green chillies and stir for a minute until the tomato soften. Season with salt to taste at this point.
- After about a minute, add vinegar, tomato ketch up and black pepper powder. Stir well to mix everything together. If the spices tend to stick to the bottom of the pan, add couple of splashes of water and keep stirring.
- Finally add the drained paneer cubes and garam masala. Stir carefully so that the soft paneer cubes don’t break but gets coated with the spices. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes so that the paneer is infused with the aroma of all the spices.
- Uncover after 5 minutes and sprinkle some freshly chopped coriander leaves. Give a final stir and serve hot with roti or naan.
Seriously you made it, this actually looking yummy and healthy at the same time. Can’t wait to try it out but has to wait for next weekends because quite busy this weekend.