E2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22 , 2021
Simple Butter Paneer
4 servings
This popular restaurant dish, sometimes called paneer butter
masala or paneer makhani, uses cashews and tomatoes to enrobe the
Indian cheese cubes in a rich, gently spiced sauce. It employs three
kinds of dairy, but you can use tofu, vegan butter and nondairy cream
alternative if you’d like. Serve with flatbread or rice.
Paneer can be found in Indian markets and well-stocked supermar-
kets.
Active time: 15 mins; Total time: 50 mins
Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.
Adapted from “From Gujarat With Love” by Vina Patel (Pavilion,
2021).Ingredients
For the cashew puree
l^1 / 2 cup (2 ounces) raw cashews
l^1 / 2 cup boiling water
For the paneer
l4 tablespoons (2 ounces)
unsalted butter (may substitute
vegan butter), divided
l8 ounces paneer, cut into 1-inch
cubes (may substitute extra-
firm tofu, drained and patted
dry)
l2 cups tomato puree
l^3 / 4 teaspoon chili powder
l^1 / 2 teaspoon garam masala
l^1 / 2 teaspoon paprika
l1 cup water
l1 teaspoon granulated sugar
l3 tablespoons heavy cream
(may substitute nondairy
cream alternative, such as Silk
brand)
l^1 / 2 teaspoon fine sea salt or
table salt, plus more to taste
l1 teaspoon coarsely grated
fresh ginger (optional)
l5 slices red chile (optional)Steps
lMake the cashew puree: In a
small bowl, combine the
c ashews and hot water. Let soak
for 30 minutes, then transfer
the mixture to a blender or mini
food processor and puree until
smooth.lMake the paneer: In a medium
nonstick pan over medium heat,
melt 1 tablespoon of the butter.
Add the paneer and cook, turn-
ing the cubes occasionally, until
light golden brown on at least
two sides, 5 to 7 minutes. Trans-
fer to a small bowl.
lAdd the remaining 3 table-
spoons of butter to the pan, and
once it melts add the cashew
puree. Cook, stirring, until the
mixture is incorporated, then
stir in the tomato puree, chili
powder, garam masala and pap -
rika. Cook, stirring occasionally,
until the mixture thickens, 1 to
2 minutes. Stir in the water and
add the paneer. Cook, stirring
occasionally, until the mixture
darkens and oil rises to the sur-
face, 5 to 7 minutes. (You might
want to use a splatter guard
here, as the bubbles tend to
spit.) Stir in the sugar, cream
and salt and cook just until the
mixture is incorporated and
heated through, 30 seconds.
Taste, and season with more
salt, if needed.
lGarnish with ginger and chile
slices, if using, and serve warm.
Nutrition | Per serving (1 cup): 432 calories,
19 g protein, 19 g carbohydrates, 34 g fat, 19
g saturated fat, 85 mg cholesterol, 385 mg
sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 10 g sugar
Recipe tested by Joe Yonan; email questions
to [email protected]Tetrazzini
4 servings
Though this version of the Italian-American classic pasta casserole is
creamy and rich, it’s easily made vegan thanks to a sauce thickened not
with flour, butter and milk, but cannellini beans. Omit the chicken to let
the mushroom flavor shine. Grated Parmesan cheese in the sauce can
be replaced with nutritional yeast and a touch of dry mustard, see
NOTE.
Total time: 45 mins, plus optional baking time
Leftovers may be refrigerated for up to 4 days.
From staff writer G. Daniela GalarzaIngredients
l3 tablespoons olive oil, plus
more for greasing, if desired
l1 medium onion (8 ounces),
diced
l8 ounces mushrooms,
preferably button, cremini or
porcini, thinly sliced
l 11 / 2 teaspoons fine sea salt or
table salt, divided
l1 sprig fresh thyme, plus more
for garnish if desired (may
substitute^1 / 2 teaspoon dried
thyme)
l4 cloves garlic, minced or finely
grated
l^1 / 4 cup dry white wine
(optional)
l8 ounces dry spaghetti
lOne (15-ounce) can cannellini
beans, or about 1 pound of
cooked cannellini beans in
their broth
l1 cup (3 ounces) grated
Parmesan cheese, plus more for
serving if desired (see NOTE)
l^1 / 2 teaspoon freshly cracked
black pepper
l8 ounces cooked chicken,
pulled into bite-sized pieces
(optional)
l2 tablespoons sour cream
(optional)Steps
lIn a deep, wide, lidded skillet
over medium-high heat, heat
the olive oil until it shimmers.
Add the onion, mushrooms,(^1) / 2 teaspoon of salt and the
thyme and cook, stirring occa-
sionally, until the onion and
mushrooms begin to caramel-
ize, about 10 minutes. Stir in the
garlic and cook for 1 more min-
ute. Stir in the white wine, if
using. Transfer the onion and
mushroom mixture to a bowl.
lTo the same skillet, add the
spaghetti, enough water to
c over by 1 inch, and the remain-
ing 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover and
bring to a rolling boil. (This
shouldn’t take long as the skillet
will still be quite hot.) Cook
until al dente, about 10 minutes.
Reserve 1 cup of the pasta
w ater; drain the pasta, leaving
some water clinging to it, and
return it to the skillet. Keep
warm over very low heat.
lIn the pitcher of a blender,
combine^1 / 2 cup of reserved
p asta water, the beans and their
liquid, Parmesan and pepper
and blend until very smooth.
Pour the mixture over the pasta.
Add the cooked onion and
mushroom mixture, chicken, if
using, and sour cream, if using.
Stir until the pasta is well-
coated in the sauce. If it seems a
little dry, add more pasta water.
lThe pasta can be served family-
style, right from the skillet or, if
desired, baked in a casserole
dish. If baking: Position a rack
in the middle of the oven and
preheat to 350 degrees. Grease a
9-inch square baking dish with
olive oil. Transfer the pasta mix-
ture to the greased dish, and
sprinkle with additional Parme-
san, if desired. Bake for about
15 minutes, or until the cheese is
mostly melted and the pasta is
very hot but not dry. Serve
family-style.
lNOTE: To make this recipe
v egan, omit the chicken and
cheese, and add^1 / 4 cup of nutri-
tional yeast and 1 teaspoon of
dry mustard to the sauce.
Nutrition | Per serving (with chicken; based
on 4): 633 calories, 39 g protein, 69 g
carbohydrates, 22 g fat, 6 g saturated fat,
61 mg cholesterol, 1,266 mg sodium, 8 g
dietary fiber, 6 g sugar
Nutrition | Per serving (without chicken;
based on 4): 539 calories, 24 g protein, 69 g
carbohydrates, 17 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 19
mg cholesterol, 1,224 mg sodium, 8 g
dietary fiber, 6 g sugar
Recipe tested by Kara Elder; email
questions to [email protected]
state where Patel is from, it
shows off one of the principles of
Gujarati cooking: “Our food is
spicy, sweet and sour,” Patel says
in a phone interview from her
home in Saratoga, Calif. “We add
sugar into each and every dish,
and it really balances out the
sour taste.”
In this case, it’s just a
teaspoon, and even though I
know I’ll hear about it from
readers who hate to see even a
pinch in anything, I stand by its
place in this sauce. If you’re
skeptical, make the sauce
without it, taste, then add the
sugar and taste the difference. I
think you’ll agree, but if you
don’t, you know what to do next
time.
broaden my list of regular
Indian takeout spots.
Now that Vina Patel has
taught me how to make the dish,
thanks to her cookbook “From
Gujarat With Love,” do I even
need to order it from a
restaurant?
Probably not. Cooking it at
home is just a matter of
pureeing cashews with water,
then simmering pan-fried
paneer cubes in a sauce of the
cashews, tomato puree, spices,
butter and a touch of cream. The
sauce is nothing short of
beautiful, a perfect marriage of
complex flavors that dance on
your tongue. And even though
the dish didn’t originate in
Gujarat, the western Indian
confirms that feeling.
For me, this wonderfully
simple path to butter paneer is a
little bit of both, but also kind of
neither. I had heard of butter
paneer but never tried it, even
though my husband and I eat
Indian food at least once a week.
At our favorite two places, his
go-to to-go order (say that five
times fast) is butter chicken,
mine dal makhani. I’ve ordered
saag paneer plenty of times, and
paneer korma, too, but even
though butter paneer is a
popular restaurant dish, I’ve
never seen it on the menu at
these spots, even under its
aliases paneer makhani and
paneer butter masala. This
probably means I need to
Here’s the best
kind of cookbook
moment: You
open it, you see a
recipe so
appealing you
have to make it,
you try it, you
love it, you add it
to your
repertoire.
Sometimes the dish is
something you already know —
maybe you’ve had it in
restaurants many times but
never thought you could (easily)
make it (well) at home and the
recipe proves you wrong. Or
sometimes it’s something you’ve
never heard of but wish you had,
and making the recipe just
For takeout fans, a rich paneer to try at home
Joe Yonan
WEEKNIGHT
VEGETARIAN
SCOTT SUCHMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; FOOD STYLING BY LISA CHERKASKY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
“I think I like this one,” Frida
said, surprising herself. I
remember feeling a sense of
calm that night while I waited
for my mom to pick us up. At
least in that moment in time, the
pieces had fallen into place.
[email protected]This is from our Eat Voraciously
newsletter, which delivers a quick
dinner recipe four days a week,
Monday through Thursday. Sign up at
http://wapo.st/evnewsletter.She sauteed mushrooms and
onions, and I grated the cheese.
She boiled the pasta, and I
stirred the sauce. We tasted it
before it went into the oven.
“Hmm ... needs pepper,” she
said, cracking more on top
before pouring it into a casserole
dish.
After it came out of the oven,
she portioned it into bowls. I
watched her face as she took a
bite. She nodded, and a small
smile formed on her face.recipe she’d cut out of an
American cooking magazine. “I
think we’ll have tetrazzini for
dinner — what do you think?”
I had never heard of this dish,
but I immediately liked that it
sounded like “Tetris-zzini.” I
studied the photo on the page
and decided that it looked
appropriately “American,” as it
was served in a casserole and
contained three types of dairy.
While my brother played video
games, Frida and I got to work.I wrote recently
about my many
childhood
babysitters, the
women who
watched me and
my brother after
school when my
parents worked
late. This recipe,
for tetrazzini
made with
chicken or just lots of
mushrooms, with a creamy,
cheesy sauce, was inspired by
Frida.
Frida had a large kitchen and
spent lots of time in it. The
smells of Turkish cooking
scented her home with roasted
garlic and caramelized eggplant,
toasted nuts and buttery
baklava. There was a perk to
staying at Frida’s: If my brother
and I finished our homework
early enough, we’d get to play
Ms. Pac-Man or Tetris (my then-
favorite) on an old console in the
TV room.
Sometimes I’d end up in the
kitchen, too. Frida recruited my
little kid hands to roll tiny
meatballs, which were then
simmered in a tomato sauce
thick with onions. I loved
watching her fingers stuff
herbed rice into grape leaves,
stack the fat sarma like bricks
into a tall pot and let them steam
until they turned tender and
juicy.
Looking back, I’m ashamed I
didn’t appreciate Frida’s food
more. She was a marvelous cook,
and I learned so much from
watching her and tasting
alongside her. But back then,
what my brother and I wanted to
eat more than anything was the
stuff our friends at school said
they ate for dinner: Macaroni
and cheese from a box. Hot dogs.
Frozen fish sticks. Sloppy Joes.
I was so desperate to fit in, I
didn’t let myself enjoy the rich
bounty all around me.
Frida was undeterred. She
made almost everything we
asked for. I’ll never forget the
day she stirred together a box of
Kraft macaroni and cheese. “This
is really what you want?” she
asked, an eyebrow arched. I
knew there was creamy hummus
in her fridge, warm flatbreads
and hunks of feta on the counter.
And still, I stuck my fork into the
squishy orange pasta. Strange as
it now sounds, I was convinced
that liking it would make me
acceptable in the eyes of my
peers and help me fit into the
fast-moving, Tetris-like puzzle of
the world around me.
Frida always tasted these
overly processed foods, but she
almost never liked them. One
afternoon, she showed me a
G. Daniela
Galarza
EAT
VORACIOUSLY
Tetrazzini makes everything feel like it fits in place
REY LOPEZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; FOOD STYLING BY LISA CHERKASKY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Food and dining editor: Joe Yonan • Voraciously editor: Matt Brooks •
Recipes editor: Ann Maloney • Art directors: Christine Ashack a nd
Elizabeth Hart • Photo editor: Jennifer Beeson Gregory • Food critic: Tom
Sietsema • Staff writers: Tim Carman, G. Daniela Galarza, Aaron
Hutcherson, Emily Heil, Becky Krystal • Editorial aide: Kari Sonde • Copy
editors: Jim Webster, Jordan Melendrez • Assignment editor: Olga Massov
| Contact us: [email protected], 202-334-7575. The Washington Post,
Food, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071FOOD
Ultimately, when you make
anything yourself, you can
customize, of course. That
means vegan butter (I prefer
Miyoko’s) and a nondairy cream
alternative (look for Silk) if you
follow a strictly plant-based diet
— but what about the main
ingredient?When I asked Patel about
substituting extra-firm tofu for
the paneer, she tried it herself
and reported that, while she
doesn’t like it nearly as well as
the paneer, it’s certainly suitable
for any vegan cooks. Try asking
for that in a restaurant!
[email protected]