Matar Paneer is a authentic North Indian curry made with green peas and paneer, cooked in a mild onion-tomato sauce. This is one of my go to recipe to make when I have guests at home or even on days when I crave something indulgent.
This restaurant-style Matar Paneer Masala is easy to make in less than 30 minutes in the instant pot or stovetop.
This is a classic North Indian dish that is so easy to make. I love that you can make this flavorful dish in less than 30 minutes, which makes it perfect to enjoy on weekdays too.
I always keep frozen green peas and paneer at home. Once you have these, along with the basic ingredients of onion, tomato, ginger, and garlic, this curry is a breeze to make.
My daughters love this Matar Paneer for dinner, just like my Aloo Matar recipe. I like to add a little cream at the end, as they love a creamy curry. But it is totally optional.
I have adjusted my mom’s stovetop recipe to make in an instant pot, but it can easily be made in a saucepan or a regular pressure cooker similar to this Makhana curry.
Table of Contents
Watch How to Make Matar Paneer
What is Matar Paneer?
Matar translates to green peas, and paneer is firm Indian cottage cheese. Matar Paneer, also written as Mutter Paneer, is a peas and paneer curry. This is a vegetarian and gluten-free curry.
The green peas and paneer are cooked in mildly spiced onion-tomato gravy, along with aromatics such as ginger, garlic, and spices, then finished with a touch of cream or yogurt.
I also like to add a little cashew paste when making the curry to get a thicker creamy sauce.
Garnish with cilantro, and enjoy with rice or your favorite bread (roti or naan for me) for a satisfying meal!
This curry is not only a favorite at restaurants but also common to make at home. I grew up eating this Punjabi curry weekly, and now my kids love it too!
If you love paneer, check out this collection of 20+ Best Paneer Recipes.
Ingredients
Green Peas: I use frozen green peas in this recipe. If using fresh peas, you might want to cook them for a little longer.
Paneer: Paneer is Indian-style firm cheese. It is a fresh cheese that has a soft texture and does not melt. You can either make paneer at home or purchase it. The store-bought brands I like are Sach Foods and Haldirams.
Onions: I typically use yellow onions when making Indian curries.
Tomato & Cashew Paste: I used fresh Roma tomatoes and pureed them. You can use a store-bought canned tomato puree if you like. I like to add a few cashews when grinding the tomatoes, as that gives the curry a wonderful creamy texture.
Green Chili Pepper: This adds a little spice kick and lots of flavor to the curry. However, if you like a mild curry, feel free to skip it. I use Thai, birdseye, or Serrano peppers when making Indian curries.
Ginger & Garlic: Grate the ginger and mince the garlic. You can also use ginger garlic paste if you prefer.
Spices: This curry uses basic Indian spices such as turmeric, coriander powder, red chili powder, and Garam Masala. I also add some cumin seeds at the start.
Cream: Add cream at the end to balance the flavors and make the curry luscious. You can also use coconut milk in place of cream, and it works wonderfully. You can also skip cream if you want to keep the curry light without the extra calories.
Kasoori Methi: This is optional. For a restaurant-style Matar Paneer, crush the kasoori methi between your palms and at the end after the curry is cooked.
How to Make?
This mutter paneer is so easy to make, either instant pot or stovetop, in less than 30 minutes.
Instant Pot Method
- Heat the Instant Pot in sauté mode, and add oil and cumin seeds.
- Once the cumin seeds start to splutter, add diced green chili, onion, ginger, and garlic. Let this cook until the onions soften and turn light brown.
- On the side, grind tomatoes with the cashews at the same time.
- Once the onion is cooked, add the tomatoes, cashew paste, and spices to the instant pot and cook for a few minutes.
- Add the cubed paneer and green peas to the instant pot.
- Now add water and give it a good. stir. If anything is stuck to the bottom, deglaze the pot. Close the lid with the vent in a sealing position and pressure cook the curry.
- Once the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually. Add the garam masala and cream. Roll the kasuri methi between your palms to make it a fine powder, and add it to the curry.
Stir gently, as you don’t want the paneer to crumble.
Garnish with cilantro. Mutter paneer is ready to serve.
Stovetop Method
The initial steps to make matar paneer remain the same as for the instant pot.
When cooking on the stovetop, use a heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven. Make sure to saute the onions well for 4-5 minutes until they are golden brown in color.
When sautéing the tomatoes, make sure all the liquid is dried, and the tomatoes are completely softened.
Then add the green peas, paneer, and water. Stir gently, and let it simmer for about 6-8 minutes until the paneer and peas soften. Stir at regular intervals.
Pro-tips
Thicken the sauce: Sauté the onions and tomatoes well. This adds a lot more flavor to the curry.
Paneer: If using store-bought paneer, you might want to soak it in warm water for 10 minutes. If using Haldirams or Sach Foods paneer, I skip this. However, for other brands, this helps to soften the paneer.
Fried Paneer: If you prefer, you can also sauté or air fry the paneer before adding it to this curry. If sautéing, you can add paneer after pressure cooking.
Onion Tomato Masala: My onion tomato bhuna masala can be used to make this curry. Use about 3/4 cup of the masala in place of onions, tomatoes, ginger, and garlic.
Sweetness: If the curry is acidic due to the use of canned tomatoes, add a teaspoon of honey to balance the flavors.
Low-fat Mutter Paneer: When making mutter paneer at home for everyday meals, I mostly skip the cream completely to make it lighter.
Vegan Matar Paneer
Skip the paneer and use firm tofu in this curry. Replace the cream with full-fat coconut milk or additional cashew cream.
How to Serve?
This curry can be served with naan, roti, or jeera rice.
I also like to serve cucumber raita and Indian onion salad on the side with this curry.
How to store?
Let the curry cool down completely, then store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
If you want to make it ahead or freeze it, I suggest making the onion tomato masala and freeze it. Then this curry is super easy to put together in less than 15 minutes. I do this whenever I am making this curry for a party.
More delicious Paneer Recipes:
Matar Paneer (Instant Pot & Stovetop)
Equipment
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 Green Chili Pepper, finely diced
- 1 1/4 cup Onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon Ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon Garlic, minced
- 2 Tomato, large, pureed, about 1 1/4 cup
- 10 Cashews
- 10 ounces Paneer or Cottage cheese, cubed
- 1 cup Green peas, I used frozen
- 3/4 cup Water
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala , adjust to taste
- 3 tablespoon Cream
- 2 tablespoon Dried Fenugreek leaves (Kasoori Methi), (Optional)
- Cilantro, to garnish
Spices
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder, adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1 teaspoon Salt, adjust to taste
Instructions
- Start the Instant Pot in sauté mode. Add oil and cumin seeds.
- Once the cumin seeds start to splutter, add diced green chili, onion, ginger and garlic. Let this cook for 4 mins until the onions turn light brown.
- On the side, blend tomatoes with the cashews in a blender to a smooth paste.
- Once the onion is cooked, add the tomatoes paste and spices to the instant pot and cook for another 3-4 mins.
- Add the cubed paneer, green peas and water to the instant pot. If anything is stuck to the bottom, deglaze the pot. Press cancel and close lid with vent in sealing position.
- Change the instant pot setting to manual or pressure cook mode on high pressure for 2 minutes.
- Once the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually. Add the garam masala and cream. Roll the kasuri methi with your hand to make it a fine powder and add to the curry. Stir it all gently.
- Garnish with cilantro. Mutter paneer is ready to serve.
Stovetop Method
- When cooking on the stovetop, use a heavy bottom pan or dutch oven. The initial steps to make matar paneer are same as above. Make sure to saute the onions well for 4-5 minutes until they are golden brown in color. When sautéing the tomatoes, make sure all the liquid is dried and the tomatoes are completely softened.
- Then add the green peas, paneer and water. Stir gently, and let it simmer for about 6-8 minutes, until the paneer and peas soften. Stir at regular intervals.
- Add the garam masala and cream. Roll the kasuri methi with your hand to make it a fine powder and add to the curry. Stir it all gently. Garnish with cilantro. Mutter paneer is ready to serve.
LOVE this recipe. Restaurant quality. Found it after making your dal recipe, which I make literally ALL the time. Recently tried the veggie taco soup and that was yummy too. Excited to try out some other recipes.
Would love to see more paneer recipes!
Thanks!
Hi- So good to hear that. Thank you for sharing it back 😀
This came out so well! Served it with garlic naan and everyone really enjoyed it. Thank you for another yummy recipe!
Hi Becky – So happy to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience 🙂
Hi Meeta , I tried this recipe without onion and garlic and it turned out great. Just posting this comment so, people who do not use onion and garlic can aslo use the same recipe . I just replaced 2 tomatoes in your recipe with 3 tomatoes .
As always, thanks for amazing and easy recipes .
Hi Shilpa – SO good to hear that. Thank you for sharing it back 😀
Turned out amazing! I made it on the stove top skipping the cashews and used Amul Malai Paneer. Thanks for the simple recipe.
Hi Gunjan – So good to hear that. Thank you for sharing it back 🙂
This was fantastic! I made a mistake and did not let the tomatoes simmer so it was a bit watery. I will fix it next time. Lovely and easy recipe. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed the matar paneer, Anjali!
I love this recipe, I make it over and over and it always comes out amazing, I enjoy the scents so much I do it on stove top vs IP. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes, they are all fabulous 🙏
Hi Andriana – So happy to hear that. Thank you for sharing it back 🙂
Can you skip the cashews? Anything I need to substitute in it’s place or is it fine to leave out altogether?
Hello – Sure, you can skip the cashews. They are mainly to thicken the sauce. Feel free to add more cream at the end if you like. Hope you enjoy the Matar Paneer.
I love your recipes especially because you mention the exact quantity and that leaves out any interpretation for how big or small an onion needs to be. Could you please add similar measurements here for the tomatoes and onions?
Your website is my go-to website for anything I want to cook! Thank you so much.
Ginger and cloves too!
Hello – Thank you. This is an old recipe that I plan to update with more details soon. So glad that you enjoy the recipes from the blog!
Simple yet delectable recipe. I just added Sahi Paneer Masala and little more of Coconut Milk/Cream (didnt add Heavy Cream). Came out amazing.
Hi Pai – Happy to hear you enjoyed the curry.
Easy to follow recipe and easy to make. – coming from a fairly-non-interested-in-cooking-and-novice kitchenista !
So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe.
Meeta, it’s written here Pressure cook mode in Instant Pot, but plzzz always mention, which one —-Low/Medium/High.
Then only we can cook. Waiting for ur reply before I start cooking Matar Panner , my daughter’s favorite 😍
Hi Sanjana – Use the default high pressure cook setting. I have clarified in the recipe steps now too. Thank you for asking. Hope you all enjoy the matar paneer.