You are going to want to swim in this creamy and buttery sauce…
Paneer butter masala might be the most popular paneer dish ever. If you haven’t heard of it, think soft paneer in a creamy and buttery, well-spiced, tomato-based sauce. You may also know this dish by another name: paneer makhani.
Paneer butter masala is similar to my popular butter chicken recipe and my butter chickpeas recipe, but it’s also a bit different in that I add cashews to this sauce. I like adding cashews to this paneer dish – it makes the sauce a little thicker and a little richer. If you don’t like cashews, you can use almonds or leave it out if you want.
The great thing about this dish is that it’s so simple to make, especially if you have my pre-made onion masala handy. You just heat the ingredients and add the paneer. Simple and tasty.
This recipe is part of my onion masala series called: Onion Masala LOVE. This series started with me sharing recipes using this masala throughout February, but it has been so popular that I’m going to keep it going as long as there’s interest! My goal: to show you how easy it is to prepare Indian food daily.
Click on the image below to find out how to make onion masala, store it, and find other recipes that call for it!
I like using onion masala in this recipe because it adds a lot of flavor, and there’s also no need to cook down the tomatoes. If you don’t have onion masala handy, then you can try using canned tomato sauce as that’s already cooked down though I haven’t tested it this way for the blog.
Nowadays I typically use store-bought paneer because it’s so easy to find at my local Indian store. I’ll share a recipe for homemade paneer sometime over the summer though!
Serve this paneer makhani with Indian flatbread or basmati rice.
To make this more of a complete meal, add one or two of these dishes too: chana masala or aloo methi or veggie biryani or aloo baingan masala or this Indian bean salad 🙂
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup unsalted/raw cashews
- 2 tablespoons ghee or butter
- 1 ¼ cups frozen or thawed onion masala
Spices
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon paprika or kashmiri chili for color
- ¾ teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne adjust to taste
- Pinch of dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi
- 1 14 ounce block Paneer, cubed
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream OR full-fat unsweetened coconut cream, to taste
Instructions
- Add the water and cashews to a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside for now.
- Add the ghee, onion masala and spices to a saucepan over low heat and allow it to simmer for a couple minutes (if using frozen masala then simmer until the masala melts).
- Pour the blended cashews into the saucepan along with the paneer and cook until the paneer is heated through.
- Stir in the cream and serve.
Notes
- This recipe is part of my onion masala series – be sure to check it out!
Emily says
Love it! I hate cleaning my blender, so I make extra cashew/water blend and freeze it for next time—works great. Thanks for sharing!!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Awesome! Also, a great tip – I don’t like cleaning my blender either, lol.
Neetal says
Another excellent recipe
My Heart Beets says
Thanks, Neetal! I’m so glad you liked the dish 🙂
Hema says
Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.
My Heart Beets says
Hema, so happy to hear that!
Shadow says
Basket of gratitude from England!
I came across this recipe when looking for an authentic Indian flavor. And boy, does it get more authentic than this! You’ve put together a fantastic combination of the onion masala recipe and this. Simply can’t say enough “thank yous”. Only thing I struggled with was, being English, I had to work out what the American cups were in grams. It would be nice to have the metric measurements in brackets but this recipe is worth the extra work!
My Heart Beets says
I’m so glad you liked this dish! Thank you for the kind words 🙂 I’m looking into getting a new recipe card so hopefully this feature will be available soon!
Ashley says
Amazing!! So fast to come together with frozen onion masala!
My Heart Beets says
Thanks, Ashley! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
Jasmine says
So easy and quite flavorful! My family never ate paneer growing up but I made this today and they really liked it! I added mattar to this since I prefer a thicker gravy and your other recipe showed a thinner gravy. The consistency of this one was closest to a restaurant style mattar paneer I’ve ever tried (I’ve cycled through maybe 4 or 5 recipes so far). I did add about a teaspoon of sugar; in the future maybe I’ll try upping the cream? I was looking for that kind of sweet flavor that restaurant MP often has. Any idea what that might be?
All in all, a keeper with some tweaking of spices to suit my personal tastes. 👍🏽
My Heart Beets says
Jasmine, so glad you and your family liked this recipe! As for a sweeter flavor, I’m pretty sure most restaurants add sugar. Hope that helps 🙂
Vidya says
Random question: I’m not a fan of the hassle of frying anything in oil, but I feel like paneer recipes just aren’t the if not fried. Have you ever tried air fryer paneer????
My Heart Beets says
Hi Vidya, you’ll never go wrong taking the extra step to pan-fry paneer though I normally skip this step when making a curry. I do suggest pan-frying paneer when using it in a recipe like my palak paneer or my Indo-chinese paneer I haven’t tried air-frying paneer – let me know how that goes if you try!
Rebecca says
Can this be frozen if the paneer is had been frozen and is now defrosted?
Gouri says
Hi Thanks for the recipe. Can i use cashew butter instead of Cashew and water blend?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Gouri, I’ve tried cashew butter as a substitute for blended cashews and water, but for some reason, the taste isn’t quite the same. If you try it though, let me know what you think!