Name: Quick Vegetable Curry with Paneer
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 4 medium shallots (peeled); 4 garlic cloves (peeled); 1½ tablespoons fresh ginger (peeled, chopped); 3 small/medium ripe tomatoes; ½ red bell pepper; 4 tablespoons tomato puree; 1 red chilli (use more if you want to add more heat); 1x14.11oz can chickpeas (drained); 8.82 ounces paneer cheese (cubed); 4-5 tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 bay leaf; 1½ teaspoons cumin powder; 1 teaspoon turmeric and coriander powder (each); 1 teaspoon curry powder (any); 1 teaspoon sea salt; Small bunch cilantro/fresh coriander (finely chopped)

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This nutritious, low in fat, easy vegetarian curry with paneer is a delicious, simple to make dish that comes together in under 30 minutes.

This quick and easy vegetable curry with paneer has a tomato based sauce, contains few spices and no coconut milk.

I absolutely love curry style recipes - they make incredible comfort dishes without necessarily being high in calories. In addition, they are endlessly versatile as well as ideal in vegetarian cooking - you can make a curry with virtually any vegetable.

This quick vegetable curry with paneer has the added advantage of being very uncomplicated and easy to make. Yes, I've taken a few shortcuts but I used good quality fresh ingredients and the result is a healthy delicious, dish that cooks in under 30 minutes and can feed a family! All it needs is a bit of nice basmati rice to go with it (you'll save time if you cook the rice while the curry is quietly simmering away).

Easy vegetable curry with paneer cheese

I love paneer cheese for its wonderful mildly sweetish flavour as well as the fact that it keeps its shape during cooking. This is why it's ideal to add to stews, salads or curries. I can't think of any other cheese with similar characteristics (halloumi is also a great cooking cheese although its high salt content makes it less versatile than paneer, in my opinion), which is what makes paneer so special.

Paneer's texture when cooked reminds me a bit of tofu. In fact, there are more similarities, as both are also good sources of protein. While tofu is a soya product, however, paneer is a cheese, so can't be used in vegan cooking.

How to make easy vegetable curry with paneer: step-by-step

This vegetarian curry recipe takes very little time to prepare. You will only have to chop the fresh ingredients roughly as they get pureed before cooking.

1. Place the garlic, ginger, shallots, tomatoes, chili and red peppers in a blender and puree.

2. Heat up the oil and add the spices.

3. Then simply pour in the pureed mixture, add the salt, stir, cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Add the chickpeas and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. In the meantime fry the paneer until lightly browned.

5. Once the sauce is ready simply add the paneer, freshly chopped cilantro, stir and enjoy!

Top tips

If you are using a small blender puree the sauce ingredients in batches.
You may not need to use the chili pepper if your curry powder is quite spicy.
To save time fry the paneer cheese while the curry is bubbling away.
Herbs: I used cilantro for garnish but other alternatives include thai basil or tarragon (about 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs added into the sauce as it's cooking).
Freeze individual portions without the paneer (best to add it into the curry straight from the pan) for up to 3 months.

You may have noticed that the list of ingredients is not very long, as far as curries go, especially when it comes to spices. As this is meant to be a quick mid-week dish I opted for a combination of curry powder plus only 3 more spices, which I particularly enjoy in curry dishes: cumin, coriander and turmeric. There are various types of curry powders in the shops so just use your favourite.

What I also love about this easy veggie curry recipe is that it can be enjoyed the next day too. That's if there are any leftovers...

More easy vegetarian curry style recipes

Check out also this collection of over 12 healthy vegetarian pasta meals.

Keep in touch!

Have you made this quick vegetarian curry? I'd love to know how it turned out for you. Let me know in the comments below, thanks!

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