Paneer lababdar is a scrumptious restaurant style curry dish with rich, creamy and super flavorful onion-tomato gravy. You’ll get a taste of paneer in every bite as we are adding grated paneer as well as cubes of paneer in the gravy.
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❤️About This Recipe
What Is The Meaning Of Lababdar?
I never knew the meaning of lababdar. So googled it and landed on a Facebook page. It explains that "Lababdar" means a strong desire for something and a complete surrender to it. Lababdar as a term is attached to this dish to signify the complete surrender of one’s taste buds to that dish.
Taste, Texture & Flavor:
- Medium spicy (Customizable spice level by decreasing or increasing the amount of chili powder)
- Super rich & creamy (thanks to cashews, butter and heavy cream)
- Aromatic (when tempering made with whole spices in hot oil they release their flavor and aroma, especially mace and black cardamom hit differently)
- Slightly tangy & mildly sweet.
- Not smooth gravy like paneer butter masala (here grated paneer adds some texture to the gravy)
This paneer lababdar is a rich and luxurious main dish. It is served with lachha paratha or garlic naan. Perfect for festivals or special occasion family dinner, or guest dinners.
🧾Ingredient Notes
Here is the pic of the ingredients you’ll need to make this North Indian restaurant style paneer lababdar. All of them are easily available, nothing fancy here.
- Paneer: It is available in the frozen section or the dairy section of Indian grocery stores. Occasionally I make homemade paneer, but for convenience, I mostly use store-bought.
- TIP: Keep the paneer cubes in warm water until you are ready to use them. This way paneer absorbs some water and becomes soft. Skip this if using a homemade one.
- Whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, green cardamoms, black cardamom and mace): These are added to the hot oil as a tempering. They add a nice aromatic flavor to the paneer lababdar gravy.
- TIP: Always make sure that the oil is hot when you add the spices (never add to cold or warm oil).
- Red onions: Please use red onions (Yellow or white won’t add that nice flavor in Indian curry recipes).
- Ginger Garlic: I have freshly grated ginger, and garlic here. You can use readymade ginger garlic paste here.
- Tomatoes: Always use ripe tomatoes. Unripe tomatoes make the gravy sour.
- TIP: When it comes to Indian gravy dishes, I highly recommend using Roma tomatoes. Stay away from the beefsteaks or wine-ripe tomatoes which make sour gravy.
- Cashew nuts: It helps to make thick, nutty, rich gravy.
- Kasoori methi: Always crush kasoori methi between your palm before adding it to the gravy to release its flavor and aroma.
- TIP: Sometimes because of moisture or humid weather, kasoori methi gets soft and doesn’t crush. If so toast kasoori methi in the microwave or in the pan on the stovetop for a few minutes. Let it cool down completely and now you can crush it easily.
👩🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
1) Soak the cashew nuts in hot water for 15 minutes.
2) Make a smooth paste out of it. Keep it aside.
3) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add whole spices and saute for a minute or until you get a nice aroma of the spices.
4) Add chopped onion and cook until they turn light brown.
5) Add ginger garlic paste.
6) Mix and saute for 40-60 seconds or until the raw smell of ginger garlic goes away.
7) Add pureed tomato and slit green chili.
8) Mix and cook until all the moisture evaporates and it becomes like a thick paste. In the beginning, it may splutter a lot. So partially cover the pan with a lid and do stir in between to make sure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once it stops spluttering, you can remove the lid and continue cooking.
9) Add salt, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder.
10) Mix and cook for a minute.
11) Add cashew nut paste.
12) Mix and cook for a minute.
13) Add water and let the gravy simmer on medium-low for 5 minutes.
14) Taste the gravy and add sugar accordingly.
15) Add garam masala and crushed kasoori methi. Mix well.
16) Add paneer cubes and grated paneer. Mix and let the mixture come to a boil.
17) Add butter and heavy cream.
18) Mix and cook until butter is melted. Paneer lababdar is ready to serve.
💭Expert Tips
- Avoid using unripe tomatoes. They make the gravy sour. Try to use ripe Roma or plum tomatoes.
- Adjust the amount of sugar, as per the tanginess of the paneer lababdar gravy. If the tomatoes are less sour then you may need to reduce the sugar amount.
- Do not simmer the gravy longer after adding paneer otherwise, paneer will get chewy and overcooked.
- Instead of adding butter at the end of cooking, you can add a dollop of soft butter to the curry right before serving.
🍽 Serving Ideas
- Serve paneer lababdar with butter naan or lachha paratha or tandoori roti. Also, serve Indian onion salad, salted lassi on the side to complete the meal.
- As this paneer lababdar curry is rich and heavy itself, so you can serve it with basmati rice, jeera rice, or peas pulao to make a light meal with a side of onion salad and papad.
Check Out Other Restaurant Style Gravy
Did you try this paneer lababdar recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.
📋 Recipe Card
Paneer Lababdar
Ingredients
- 15 Cashew nuts
- ¼ cup Hot water to soak cashews
- 200 grams Paneer (⅓ cup grated and rest paneer cut into cubes)
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- 2 Cloves
- 1 inch Cinnamon stick
- 1 Bay leaf
- 2 stands Mace (Javitri)
- 2 Green cardamoms
- 1 Black cardamom
- ½ cup Red onion finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- 1 teaspoon Garlic paste or freshly grated
- 3 medium Tomatoes roma or plum (pureed ~ 1 ½ cups)
- 1 Green chili slit into half
- Salt to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon Coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder
- 1 cup Water for gravy
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Garam masala
- 1 teaspoon Kasoori methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) crushed before added
- 2 tablespoons Butter
- ¼ cup Heavy whipping cream or fresh cream or malai
Instructions
- Soak the cashew nuts in hot water for 15 minutes. Make a smooth paste out of it and keep it aside.
- Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, green cardamoms, black cardamom and mace) and saute for a minute or until you get a nice aroma of the spices.
- Add chopped onion and cook until they turn light brown.
- Add ginger garlic paste. Mix and saute for 40-60 seconds or until the raw smell of ginger garlic goes away.
- Add pureed tomato and slit green chili. Mix and cook until all the moisture evaporates and it becomes like a thick paste. In the beginning, it may splutter a lot. So partially cover the pan with a lid and stir in between to make sure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once it stops spluttering, you can remove the lid and continue cooking.
- Add salt, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Mix and cook for a minute.
- Add cashew nut paste. Mix and cook for a minute.
- Add water and let the gravy simmer on medium-low for 5 minutes.
- Taste the gravy and add sugar accordingly.
- Add garam masala and crushed kasoori methi. Mix well.
- Add paneer cubes and grated paneer. Mix and let the mixture come to a boil.
- Add butter and heavy cream. Mix and cook until butter is melted. Paneer lababdar is ready to serve.
Notes
- Keep the paneer cubes in warm water until you are ready to use them. This way paneer absorbs some water and becomes soft. Skip this if using a homemade one.
- Avoid using unripe tomatoes. They make the gravy sour. Try to use ripe Roma or plum tomatoes.
- I highly recommend using Roma tomatoes when it comes to the Indian gravy dishes,. Stay away from the beefsteaks or wine-ripe tomatoes which make sour gravy.
- Adjust the amount of sugar, as per the tanginess of the paneer lababdar gravy. If the tomatoes are less sour then you may need to reduce the sugar amount.
- Do not simmer the gravy longer after adding paneer otherwise, paneer will get chewy and overcooked.
- Instead of adding butter at the end of cooking, you can add a dollop of soft butter to the curry right before serving.
Mirandamom
The black cardamom and mace give this dish such a distinctive flavor! I didn’t have any cream to add at the end and it was still creamy and delicious.
Kanan Patel
Thank you for your detailed feedback.