While I love the snuggles, hot chocolates and cheese overdoses that winter brings along with it, to me summer is the best season. Growing up, summers meant end of school and exams, waking up late, playing with friends with no worry of being ‘late’ and Mangoes. More recently though, summers mean longer days, strolls in the park post work and BBQ’s in the garden. BBQ’s are such a pleasure, the smell of the charcoal, the taste of charred, yet not burnt, food, and long hours of chatting with friends and loved ones. When it comes to BBQ recipes, I have some tried and tested dishes that are absolute winners. These Coriander Paneer Skewers are on the few.
I know you’re probably thinking BBQ’ed food means meat. But these delicately marinated paneer chunks are a delight to even the meat eaters. Vegetarians behold, a simple to put together dish.
Coriander Paneer Skewers?
The marinade for these skewers is basically a coriander chutney mixed with liberal amounts of yogurt. Hung yogurt is best because it means the marinade actually sticks to the paneer cubes. But plan yogurt also works well.
A combination of mint and coriander means only one thing – bursts of citrussy, lemony notes. When you further add ginger, garlic and yogurt to this, it just enhances everything 100 times more.
Serve the coriander paneer drumsticks alongside my grated carrot salad and green coriander chutney. You’ve got yourself a winner, trust me when your friends will come back asking you for the recipe.
| Prep Time | 15 mins |
| Cook Time | 20 mins |
| Servings |
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- 250 gms paneer Cubed
- 4 tbsp thick yogurt I used Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 250 gm coriander leaves and stems washed & cleaned coarsely chopped
- 1/2 inch Ginger peeled
- 2-3 pods garlic peeled
- 1 green chilli
- 2-3 tbsp gram flour/ besan If you’re allergic to gram flour, just a cornstarch slurry
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2-3 mint leaves
- Oil for the pan or the BBQ
- 1 tsp Chaat Masala Optional. If you don’t have chaat masala, then use a combination of cumin powder, dry mango powder and rock salt.
Ingredients
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For the Marinade
- In a blender, take the coriander leaves and stems, mint leaves, ginger, garlic and green chilli. Grind to make a smooth paste/chutney.
- Add a little water to the chutney if required. Blend again.
- Pour the chutney into a large mixing bowl. Add to it the yogurt and lemon juice and salt to taste. Mix everything.
For the skewers
- Cube the paneer into large chunks. Make them big enough to stay intact on skewers.
- Add these paneer chunks to the coriander marinade and cover evenly.
- Marinade for at-least 30 mins, I tend to marinade overnight as the flavours really get into the paneer.
- Take a hot griddle pan/frying pan, add a few drops of oil and heat.
- Skewer the paneer cubes.
- Once oil is hot, add the marinated paneer skewers and pan roast until brown.
- You might have to scrape the marinade off the marinade from the pan as the chickpeas flour might stick to the pan.
- Turn the skewers so that the skewers roast evenly. It should take roughly 15-20 minutes of pan roasting.
- If BBQing, then follow the same process but oil the skewers prior to putting onto the grill, so that the skewers don’t stick to the grill.
- Serve alongside grated carrot salad and green coriander chutney