Paneer Bhurji Recipe (Gravy & Dry) - Spice Up The Curry (2024)

Homemade Paneer Bhurji Recipe! Grated paneer or scrambled paneer sauteed with onion, tomato, bell pepper, and a few spices. This is how easily you make comforting North Indian food at home.

Here I am sharing two methods:

1. The traditional version, a dry paneer bhurji. It is homestyle and usually served with a toast as a breakfast or with roti as a lunch or dinner.
2. Restaurant-style, paneer bhurji gravy. It is served with naan or lachha paratha as a main meal.

❤️ About This Recipe

Why is it called bhurji? Bhurji means crumbled or scrambled. To make this dish, the paneer is not cut into cubes, but grated (or crumbled).

Ingredients used for both bhurji verity are almost the same. A couple of more ingredients like cream, and whole spices are added while making paneer bhurji gravy.

Adjust the amount of spices if making for kids (who don’t eat spicy food).

Find the expert tips in the recipe card itself for both versions.

🧾 Ingredient Notes

• Paneer: Traditionally paneer bhurji (dry version) is made with homemade paneer. So for that, you just have to curdle the milk and drain the whey. No need to press or weigh it to make cubes. Just crumble the prepared paneer and it is ready to use.
  • But I don’t have extra time to make homemade paneer so I use store-bought one.
• Tomato: Always use ripe tomatoes.
  • When it comes to Indian cooking, I prefer to use roma or plum tomatoes. If using beefsteak or vine ripe tomatoes then the dish will become a little sour.
• Bell pepper: I have used a combination of green and red peppers. You can use only green or a mix of your choice.
• Spices: All the spices used in this recipe are basic to indian cooking. Nothing fancy.

Recipe 1 - Paneer Bhurji Gravy

• This is restaurant-style version where creamy, rich gravy is made from onion, tomato and whole spices.
• This paneer bhurji gravy version is not common and you’ll find it in a few restaurants here in the USA. So I have tried to recreate and got a huge success.
• This is rich and should be made on a special occasion or for guests.

Serve paneer bhurji gravy with garlic naan or tandoori roti with a side of onion lachha and salted lassi to complete a meal.

👩‍🍳 How To Make Paneer Bhurji Gravy? (Pics)

1) To make tomato gravy, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add whole spices (bay leaf, dried chili, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom). Saute for a few seconds. You will get a nice aroma of spices.

2) Add roughly chopped ginger, garlic, and green chili and saute for a minute.

3) Mix in roughly chopped tomatoes.

4) Cook until tomatoes are soft. Let the mixture cool down slightly.

5) While it is cooling, grate the paneer.

6) Now make a smooth puree out of cooked tomatoes.

7) I have used the same pan. Wipe it clean using a paper towel. Heat remaining oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add cumin seeds. Let them sizzle.

8) Then add chopped onions and sprinkle a little salt to speed up the process. Cook until the onion gets light brown in color.

9) Add prepared tomato gravy and mix.

10) Cook until all the moisture evaporates. It may splutter a lot while cooking. So you can partially cover the pan with a lid. Do stir occasionally and make sure that gravy is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. It should start leaving the sides of the pan when cooked.

11) Add red chili powder, coriander powder, and cumin powder.

12) Mix well and cook for a minute.

13) Add green and red pepper and mix.

14) Add water to make gravy consistency. Let it simmer for 4-5 minutes. Meantime capsicum will get cooked.

15) Add garam masala and kasoori methi, mix. Crush kasoori methi between your palm to release its maximum flavor before adding.

16) Add grated paneer and stir. Simmer for 2-3 minutes only and adjust the gravy consistency by adding water if needed.

17) Add heavy cream.

18) Stir well and turn off the stove. Garnish with chopped cilantro and paneer bhurji gravy is ready to serve.

📋 Recipe Card

Recipe 2 - Dry Paneer Bhurji Recipe

Many people call this paneer bhujia or paneer bharta.

Super quick to make: Dry version recipe takes just 20 minutes.

Different Ideas For Serving Paneer Bhurji:

• Perfect protein-riched breakfast to make on busy mornings. If so I recommend chopping veggies a day before and keeping them ready in the fridge. Enjoy with bread toast or pav.
• Pack into the lunchbox with roti or paratha. It makes a filling and delicious meal.
• Wrap: spread some cilantro chutney on chapati or paratha or store-bought wrap, stuff with bhurji, add sliced onions or onion lachha and roll it.
• Dosa: spread 2-3 tablespoons of bhurji as stuffing into your plain dosa.
• Sandwich: Spread butter and coriander chutney on both bread slices. Use bhurji as stuffing and grill or toast the sandwich as you like.

👩‍🍳 How To Make Paneer Bhurji Recipe? (Dry)

1) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle a bit.

2) Add chopped onion and sprinkle a little salt to speed up the cooking process, mix.

3) Saute until onions are soft and bout to get light brown in color.

4) Add ginger paste, garlic paste, and green chili. Mix and saute for a minute or until the raw smell of ginger garlic goes away.

5) Add chopped tomatoes.

6) Cook until tomatoes are soft (not mushy).

7) Add green and red peppers.

8) Cook for 4-5 minutes or until peppers is almost soft.

9) Add remaining salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder.

10) Mix and cook for a minute. You’ll notice oil starts to separate from the sides.

11) Add crumbled paneer.

12) Mix and cook for 2-3 minutes. Do not overcook otherwise paneer will turn chewy.

13) Lastly, squeeze fresh lemon juice and mix.

14) Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro and enjoy dry paneer bhurji.

Did you try this paneer bhurji recipe? If yes, which one? I’d love to hear about it! Comment here to leave a review.

📋 Recipe Card