North Indian

Kadai Paneer

Kadai Paneer is North Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

40 min Medium Vegetarian Halal Gluten free Pescatarian

Ingredients

  • 14 oz paneer
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 1 onion
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger
  • 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  • 3 dried red chilies
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • 4 tbsp neutral oil
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1 tsp salt

How to cook it

  1. Dry roast the coriander seeds and dried red chilies until fragrant, then coarsely grind them into a kadai masala.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp oil and quickly sear the cubed paneer and thick-cut peppers until lightly charred, then set aside.
  3. Add the remaining oil and cook the onion, garlic, and ginger until golden, about 6 minutes.
  4. Stir in the turmeric and half the kadai masala, then add the chopped tomatoes and cook until saucy, about 7 minutes.
  5. Return the paneer and peppers, season with salt and the remaining kadai masala, and toss over medium heat for 5 minutes.
  6. Crush in the fenugreek leaves, stir in the garam masala, finish with cilantro, and serve hot with roti.

Serve it with

A North Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Kadai Paneer, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Kadai Paneer carries dairy. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.

Every tracked allergen in Kadai Paneer
Allergen In this dish Cook this instead
Peanuts No
Tree nuts No
Dairy Yes Masala Omelette
Gluten No
Shellfish No
Eggs No
Soy No
Fish No
Sesame No
Coconut No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.

Calorie band
Hearty
Protein
High
Protein quality
Complete
Food groups it covers
Vegetables and Dairy
How this was set
Hand audited

When to cook it

Kadai Paneer takes about 40 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.

Watch someone make it

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More to cook

Does the same job on the plate

Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.

Cook this with your whole family

Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.

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