A salad doesn’t need to be a naive side dish dominated by the main course dishes. If prepared properly, it could also become the highlight of a meal. Like this paneer salad from India. This vegetarian salad is loaded with a lot of delicious ingredients that complement each other. It’s so filling that you can enjoy it as a meal too.
It’s one of the most popular vegetarian ingredients in the Indian cuisine.
- Ingredients needed to saute paneer cubes:
- Ingredients needed to make green chutney dressing:
- Other ingredients needed to make paneer salad:
Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions
Paneer: Try using fresh paneer, it’s creamier and sweeter.Honey: You can also use sugar, agave syrup, or any sweetener of your choice. It balances all the other flavors of chutney.Roasted cumin powder: Don’t use regular cumin powder as it tastes quite different from roasted cumin powder. To make it, you can dry roast regular cumin powder in a pan stirring continuously until it turns fragrant. It will take a few seconds only. You can also dry roast cumin seeds and then ground them to make this powder.Black salt: It’s a very pungent rock salt used in many recipes in the Indian subcontinent. It’s easily available in Indian grocery stores and online too. However, if you can’t find it, use regular table salt only.Vegetables and greens: I have used a carrot, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, onion, and lettuce. Feel free to use the vegetables and greens of your choice.Nuts and seeds: If you are allergic to nuts, skip them. You can also use other nuts and seeds of choice like walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc. Dry roast them before using in the salad. Roasting makes them tastier and crunchier.
Step 2: Spread paneer cubes on the pan in a single layer. Sprinkle some salt and ground black pepper. Step 3: Cook until the paneer cubes start getting brown patches then toss them over and cook the other side too for 3-4 minutes. Step 4: Put roughly chopped tomato, garlic, green chili, cilantro, mint leaves, honey, lime juice, regular salt, black salt, and roasted cumin powder in a grinding jar. Step 5: Pulse to make a paste. You may add some water or oil if the paste is too thick for the dressing. Step 6: Put all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Step 7: Pour green chutney on top. Step 8: Gently toss until everything gets mixed well. Your flavorful Indian paneer salad is ready to be enjoyed!
This hearty paneer salad can also be enjoyed as a meal itself. You can also stuff it in wraps to make a healthy vegetarian paneer wrap. It can be added to sandwiches too. If you want to store for a longer period, saute paneer cubes and store them in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week. Refrigerate chutney separately in an airtight jar or container for a week too. When you want to enjoy the salad just chop the vegetables, add sauteed paneer, chutney, and all the remaining ingredients. Toss and enjoy! Don’t freeze paneer salad.
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Recipe
