Cottage Cheese and Green Peas in Spinach Gravy/Matar Paneer Hara Masala

Many of us like dishes prepared with Paneer. There are number of dishes prepared using Paneer. One of them is Matar Paneer Hara Masala – the name hara since the dish is green in color. Like most of the Paneer dishes, it goes well with Roti, Naan etc. Since dishes made with Paneer are loved by everyone favorites in our family, I added this dish to many of the Paneer Dishes already posted and likely to get posted in future.

Ingredients:

Spinach (medium sized bunch) – 1

Oil – 2 tbsp

Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 tsp

Red Chilli Powder – 1 tsp

Coriander Seed Powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder – 1 pinch

Finely chopped Capsicum – ¼ cup

Fresh Green Peas (Boiled) – 1 cup

Large Tomato – 1 (deseeded and finely chopped)

Cottage Cheese (Paneer) – 150 Gms (cut into small cubes)

Garam Masala – ¼ tsp

Fresh Cream – 2 tbsp

Kasoori Methi – ¼ tsp

Lemon Juice – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Boil 3 cups of water. When it starts boiling, add the cleaned and rinsed Spinach and allow it to boil for a couple of minutes. Strain the water. Transfer the Spinach to a bowl of cold water (This process is called blanching the Spinach. It helps in retaining the green color of the Spinach in the dish and helps to stop further cooking of the same later). Remove the spinach and make a fine puree of it and keep aside.

Heat the Oil in pan. Add Cumin Seeds and allow it to crackle. Add Ginger Garlic Paste. Stir cook for a minute in low flame.

Now, add the Red Chilli Powder, Turmeric Powder and the Coriander Seed Powder. Stir cook for a few seconds.

Add the Capsicum and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the Green Peas, Tomato and Salt. In one side of the pan, mash around 2 tbsp of the Green Peas with a potato masher. Combine all together. Stir cook for 2 to 3 minutes.