Chilli Paneer is an all delicious flavourful Indo Chinese vegetarian fusion often served dry as a starter or appetizer. Paneer chunks sauteed well in spices, chillies, onion, capsicum and soy sauce make it a lip-smacking spicy recipe.
It is a palatable starter for large dinner parties, especially, created to please the crowd with the extra boost of healthy saucy spicy-sweet goodness.
It can also be prepared into a gravy variant, known as the Paneer Manchurian, served with butter rice, hot soups and curd.
Information
Chilli paneer is made with a Chinese soupy curry or it can be made as a dry crunchy appetizer without the curry. The gravy is made from tomato puree or vegetable puree but it does not involve the use of herbs or masala, commonly found in Indian dishes. - Chilli paneer can be used as a starter for dinner parties prepared with thick saucy crunchy corn - based vegetarian curry served as an appetizer or part of the main course.
- It can be eaten every day in Indian - veg Tiffin Service.
- It is one of the 100% vegans – vegetarian recipe.
- The dry version is gluten-free, without any artificial colour, flavour and preservatives.
- It is a high protein option.
About Chilly paneer
In Chilly paneer, the Indian cottage cheese is tossed in a flavorful spicy sauce made with soy sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar.
Two types of chilli paneer are popular in India – the dry version, served as an appetizer and the gravy version often called the Paneer Manchurian, eaten as a main course with rice or noodles. There are also semi-dry versions which can work both ways.
What is paneer?
Paneer is milk flavored cheesy chunk that is stirred in different types of soups to get unique flavors. It is an important ingredient of Asian cuisine mostly used as a replacement for meat in vegetarian dishes. It can be combined with many types of vegetables and grilled with sauces.
Restaurant Chilli paneer
Chilli paneer offers flavourful restaurant-style platter, a perfect example of multiple savours as one can experience the combination of five tastes – sweet, sour, spicy, salty and bitter. Finely chopped celery sauteed in sesame oil is used to enhance the flavors of deep-fried paneer chunks.
Homemade Chilli paneer
Crispy dry-fried paneer coated with corn starch batter sauteed with fresh chilli sauce and ingredients like garlic, capsicum and spring onions is often made in Indian homes. The fried pieces are tossed with red chilli, soya sauce and vinegar to get a super spicy floury vegetarian curry.
It is very tasty, delicious and good value food. At home, gluten-free soy sauce and rice flour can be used instead of cornflour (or all-purpose flour) to get a gluten-free version.
How to serve?
One can serve the dry Chilli paneer as an appetizer in dinner parties to the guests with beverages. The Manchurian version is mostly offered as a part of the main course served with roti or schezwan fried rice or Hakka noodles. The meal can be served with a set of sauces – green chilli sauce, tomato –red chilli sauce, soya sauce and vinegar.
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