How to Cook Paneer Tikkas

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients needed to make Paneer Tikka:

• 10-12 paneer or whole milk ricotta cheese cubes
• 1 tsp garlic, chopped
• ¼ cup greek-style yogurt
• 1 tbsp green chili paste
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt to taste

For the spice blend:

• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• ¼ tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric

Cooking instructions for Paneer Tikka:

• To prepare the marinade, pour the yogurt into a blender and spoon in the green chili paste as well as garlic.
• Pulse them into a smooth paste and scrap it out onto a large mixing bowl.
• Dump all the spice blend ingredients into a spice grinder and blitz them into a somewhat coarse powder.
• Spoon it into the same bowl and whisk them together until well combined; set aside.
• Throw in the paneer cubes and give them a nice stir to coat well with the marinade.
• Cover with a lid and set aside for 20 minutes to marinate.
• Meanwhile, warm up your oven to 210 degrees F.
• Insert the marinated paneer through skewers and brush them with a lashing of oil until properly coated on all sides.
• Place a wire rack in a baking tray and arrange the skewered paneer cubes onto the rack.
• Place the baking tray into the hot oven and grill them for 15-18 minutes or until they turn golden brown; make a point to rotate them from time to time while cooking.
• Take them out of the oven and remove them from the skewers.
• Serve the hot paneer tikkas along with green chutney.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons