Paneer for all your Indian curries

India is known as heaven for vegetarians, and we can totally understand why. If we could eat paneer every day, we wouldn’t miss meat either.

Paneer is a soft, fresh cheese that is widely used in Indian cuisine. It doesn’t melt and has a firm texture, so you can let it simmer in a curry and let it absorb all the flavors.

Curd

It’s a curd cheese, which means it’s made by heating milk with acid (usually lemon juice) and allowing it to ferment. Because it’s a fresh cheese, it has a milky flavor that isn’t very pronounced. Perfect for spicy curries, then.

Buy it or make it yourself?

Paneer is available at Asian grocery stores and even at some organic supermarkets. Making it yourself is also a fun project and not difficult at all. All you need is cheesecloth. Check here to learn how to make paneer.

Paneer saag

In principle, you can use paneer in almost any curry; our favorite is paneer saag. In this dish, the cheese is added to a curry made with puréed spinach and typical Indian spices such as garam masala, coriander and cumin. With this recipe, you can easily make it at home.