This Kashmiri Tamatar Paneer – Tomato Kashmiri Paneer Curry is an ideal, effortless side dish for any type of meal, whether it’s weeknight dinners, weekday dinners or holiday meals.
Kashmiri pandits typically cook food without onion or tomatoes. However, this paneer dish has a slight variance and it includes tomatoes.
In Kashmiri language paneer is known as chaman. So this is known as Koshur Tamatar Chaman.
What paneer did I use for Kashmiri Tamatar Paneer – Tomato Kashmiri Paneer Curry?
For this recipe, I used Haldiram brand of paneer. After, trying a variety of paneer types I have zeroed in on this one. It is super soft, moist and without preservatives. Additionally, it is tender like the paneer you find in India. It can be found in the frozen section, in the deep freezer in Indian grocery stores. You can thaw it by keeping it in the refrigerator overnight. Or also microwave it on high for 5 minutes if in a time bind.
However, you can buy any brand that you like or prefer.
How do I make Kashmiri Tamatar Paneer – Tomato Kashmiri Paneer Curry?
Prep:
Chop the thawed paneer into 2-inch cubes. In thickness they need to be about 1/4th inch thick. I chopped it horizontally and vertically and got 16 pieces out of 1 block of paneer.
Puree 3 small tomatoes (roughly 1 cup pureed).
Cook:
First, select sauté on the Instant Pot and adjust to normal. Next, add oil to the pot.
When the oil is hot, add in asafoetida, cumin seeds, cloves, bay leaf, black cardamom pods, green cardamom pods, and cinnamon stick. Stir and let it sauté for a few minutes until the cumin seeds splutter.
Then add in pureed tomato and it sauté for 4 minutes until the oil separates.
Then add Kashmiri chili powder, ground ginger, ground fennel, ground cumin, salt and give it a good stir.
Further, add in ½ cup water, and paneer. Additionally make sure the spices coat the paneer well without breaking the paneer. Press cancel.
Once all the ingredients are in, seal the pot and select manual/high pressure for 3 minutes.
Finally, when cooking is complete, use quick pressure release to depressurize. Transfer to a serving bowl, discard the bay leaf and serve over steamed rice or with naan/roti.
Tried this recipe yet? Give us a rating, comment below in the reply section and let us know what you think.
Try some of our other Kashmiri recipes:
Kashmiri Haak Aloo – Instant Pot Kale and Potato Curry
Swiss Chard Curry – Instant Pot Kashmiri Haak
Kashmiri Tamatar Paneer – Tomato Kashmiri Paneer Curry
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker Electric
Ingredients
- 12.6 oz paneer (haldiram brand or preferred brand or homemade)
- 3 tomatoes, small ( 1 cup pureed)
- 3 tbsp oil of choice
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida (heeng)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
- 3 whole cloves (laung)
- 1 dried bay leaf (tej patta)
- 2 whole black cardamom pod (kali elaichi)
- 2 whole green cardamom pod (hari elaichi)
- 1 cinnamon stick 2 inch piece (dalchini)
- 1 tbsp kashmiri chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger (sonth)
- 1 tbsp ground fennel (saunf powder)
- 1 tsp ground cumin (jeera powder)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
Prep
- Chop the thawed paneer into 2-inch cubes. In thickness they need to be about 1/4th inch thick. I chopped it horizontally and vertically and got 16 pieces out of 1 block of paneer.
- Puree 3 small tomatoes (roughly 1 cup pureed).
Cook
- First, select sauté on the Instant Pot and adjust to normal. Next, add oil to the pot.
- When the oil is hot, add in asafoetida, cumin seeds, cloves, bay leaf, black cardamom pods, green cardamom pods, and cinnamon stick. Stir and let it sauté for a few minutes until the cumin seeds splutter.
- Then add in pureed tomato and it sauté for 4 minutes until the oil separates.
- Then add Kashmiri chili powder, ground ginger, ground fennel, ground cumin, salt and give it a good stir.
- Further, add in ½ cup water, and paneer. Additionally make sure the spices coat the paneer well without breaking the paneer. Press cancel.
- Once all the ingredients are in, seal the pot and select manual/high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Finally, when cooking is complete, use quick pressure release to depressurize. Transfer to a serving bowl, discard the bay leaf and serve over steamed rice or with naan/roti.
Notes
- Kashmiri’s typically deep fry the paneer. I have eliminated that step. Please feel free to deep fry if you’d like.
- If you choose to deep fry please fry the paneer until it turns golden brown. Drain the excess oil on a napkin. After that follow the steps of adding oil and the whole spices.
- This dish is not supposed to be very soupy. If you like it soupy please add 3/4 cup water instead of 1/2 cup.
- This dish is not very spicy. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would place it at 2.5. Kashmiri chili powder is not very spicy and it imparts a bright red color to the dish.
- The whole spices (cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf, can be discarded, they don’t need to be consumed).
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