Instant Pot Shahi Paneer - This restaurant style exotic curry with cottage cheese is not only exotic but one of the easiest Indian curries to ever make at home. The smooth, silky curry dunk with soft and tender paneer cubes is rich, creamy and super yummy when paired with Naan or Basmati Jeera Rice. Perfect for special occasions, parties and potlucks. Try it, might just become your new favorite curry. Gluten-Free. Vegan & Stove-top option included. Video Recipe.

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What is Shahi Paneer

Shahi mean royal.

Paneer is the soft and tender Indian cottage cheese.

Shahi Paneer is an exotic curry made with onions, tomatoes, nuts and cream. It's typically not a spicy curry. It's packed with mild fragrant flavors with Paneer cubes dunk in it. It's delicious when paired with Naan, roti/chapatti or Basmati Jeera Rice.

Why you will love this Shahi Paneer Recipe

I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is to make Shahi Paneer in your pressure cookers. You literally just throw in the ingredients and let the pressure cooker do the work for you without any baby sitting.
You will fall in love with how delicious this easy curry tastes.
The thick creamy sauce is perfect to dunk cheese cubes and relish it with Naan, roti/chapatti or Basmati Jeera Rice.
Great for parties & potlucks. It's a restaurant style curry but it's so easy to make it at home.
It's gluten-free and can be made vegan too.
The sauce is freezer friendly and you can meal prep this recipe ahead of time. I freeze the sauce and when I am crunched on time, just thaw the sauce and throw in some fresh paneer and serve.

Instant Pot Shahi Paneer Ingredients

Here is just a gist of the ingredients involved in the recipe you can find the measurements in the recipe card below.

Paneer or Tofu - You can use homemade paneer or you can find it at any Indian grocery store in the frozen section. If you are looking for a vegan substitute to Paneer you could add Tofu instead.
For the sauce - onions, tomatoes, cashews or almonds, ginger, garlic, salt, water, table cream or coconut cream for vegan option.
Spices - bay leaves, turmeric powder, kashmiri red chilli powder, garam masala, dried fenugreek leaves, green cardamom. For a delicious aromatic sauce, try not to skip the dried fenugreek leaves and cardamom as they add a lot of flavor and aroma to this curry.

How to make Shahi Paneer in Instant Pot : Step by step instructions

Name: Instant Pot Shahi Paneer Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 28 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: oil, 2 tbsp; onions, 2 large, diced or cut into 4; tomatoes on the vine, 3 cut into 4; raw unsalted cashews 15, soaked; bay leaves, 2; green cardamom, 5; turmeric 1/2 tsp; kashmiri red chilli powder, 1 tsp; dried fenugreek leaves, 2 tbsp; garam masala, 1/2 tbsp; water 1 cup; salt to taste; table cream / coconut milk / vegan cream 1/2 cup; homemade paneer / tofu cubes 1.5 cups; ginger, 1/2 inch; garlic cloves, 4

Here is just a gist of the steps involved in the recipe you can find the measurements in the recipe card below.

Step 1 - Prepare the ingredients. If making paneer at home, check out our homemade paneer recipe. Wash, peel and cut the tomatoes and onions into halves. Peel the ginger and garlic. Cut the paneer or tofu into cubes. Keep the spices ready.Soak cashews for 30 minutes in milk or water.

Step 2 - Saute. Using the saute function, heat oil in the inner pot. Once the oil is hot, throw in the bay leaves, green cardamom and stir until you smell an aroma. Then add in the rest of the spices, turmeric power, kashmiri red chilli powder, dried fenugreek leaves & garam masala. give it a stir. Next, wait for 30 seconds and add the onions, tomatoes, cashews or almonds, salt and water.
Step 3 - Pressure Cook. Cover the lid, seal the vent and pressure cook for 8 minutes on high. Manually release the pressure.
Step 4 - Prepare the sauce. Using a spoon remove the bay leaves and cardamom. Next using a hand or table blender, blend the pressure cooked ingredients into a smooth runny sauce. You can gradually add water to water down the sauce. Ofcourse keep in mind you will also be adding cream to the sauce so you can adjust the water based on how thick you want you sauce to be. As long as the sauce is smooth and is able to coat the cheese cubes it's good.
Step 5 - Add table cream or coconut milk or vegan unsweetened cream, cheese cubes and dried fenugreek leaves and saute for 3-5 minutes.
Step 6 - Garnish with cilantro and serve with Naan or Basmati Jeera Rice.

How to make Shahi Paneer on Stove Top

Don't own an Instant Pot yet? We highly recommend getting one as it's made our lives a lot more simple. You can read all about why we love our Instant Pots and if it's worth it here.

The quickest way to make this sauce on the stove top is using a stove top pressure cooker.

You will follow the same instructions as for Instant Pot Recipe until Step 4. Pressure cook on slow heat for 20 minutes and then follow step 5 and 6 of the Instant Pot instructions.

Can I make Shahi Paneer Vegan

You can use Tofu instead of Paneer and replace the cream with either coconut milk to thicken the sauce or even vegan unsweetened cream.

Can I meal prep Instant Pot Shahi Paneer

This is a perfect recipe for meal prep. You can prepare the sauce until step 4 a day before, a week before or make a large batch and freeze it. All you need to do before consuming is reaheat the follow step 5 and garnish.

I do it all the time and it's such a time saver specially on the day you are entertaining or preparing for a potluck. Infact there are times I have pulled out the sauce even on weeknights just out of mere convenience.

Can I freeze the Shahi Paneer Sauce

Yes this sauce is freezer friendly. Just make sure that if you are freezing this sauce you don't add cream and paneer cubes to the sauce. Follow steps 1 to 4 mentioned above and then Step 5 and garnishing just when you are ready to serve. Store the sauce in a freezer friendly container and it's good for upto 3 months.

Serving Ideas

Shahi Paneer pairs really well with naans, roti/chapatti, parathas or even basmati jeera rice. I like to throw in some cucumbers or a salad on the side too.

You can find more Indian Recipes

Hope you try making this Instant Pot Shahi Paneer recipe and relish it too. Don’t forget to come back and leave us a comment. If you know of someone who will love this recipe or Indian curries, share this with recipe with them on your social media.

Instant Pot Shahi Paneer Recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 28 minutes

Ingredients

oil, 2 tbsp
onions, 2 large, diced or cut into 4
tomatoes on the vine, 3 cut into 4
raw unsalted cashews 15, soaked
bay leaves, 2
green cardamom, 5
turmeric 1/2 tsp
kashmiri red chilli powder, 1 tsp
dried fenugreek leaves, 2 tbsp
garam masala, 1/2 tbsp
water 1 cup
salt to taste
table cream / coconut milk / vegan cream 1/2 cup
homemade paneer / tofu cubes 1.5 cups
ginger, 1/2 inch
garlic cloves, 4

Instructions

Prepare the ingredients.

For homemade paneer recipe, click here.

Wash, peel and cut the tomatoes and onions into halves. Peel the ginger and garlic. Cut the paneer or tofu into cubes. Keep the spices ready.Soak cashews for 30 minutes in milk or water.

Instant Pot Shahi Paneer Recipe

Using the saute function, heat oil in the inner pot. Once the oil is hot, throw in the bay leaves, cardamom and stir until you smell an aroma.
Next add in the rest of the spices, turmeric power, kashmiri red chili powder, kasuri methi, garam masala, coriander powder. Give it a stir.
Next, wait for 30 seconds and add the onions, tomatoes, soaked cashews or almonds, salt and water.
Cover the lid, seal the vent and pressure cook for 8 minutes followed by a manual release of pressure once the time beeps after the pressure cooking cycle.
Using a spoon remove the bay leaves and cardamom.
Next Using a hand or table blender, blend the pressure cooked ingredients into a smooth runny sauce. You can gradually add water to water down the sauce. Ofcourse keep in mind you will also be adding cream to the sauce so you can adjust the water based on how thick you want the sauce to be. as long as the sauce is smooth and is able to coat the cheese cubes it's good.
Add table cream or coconut milk or vegan cream, cheese cubes and dried fenugreek leaves and saute for 3-5 minutes.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with Naan or Basmati Jeera Rice.

Stove Stop Pressure Cooker Shahi Paneer Recipe

Follow Instant Pot recipe instructions 1 to 4 on your stove top pressure cooker.
Once you cover the lid of your stove top pressure cooker, pressure cook on medium heat for about 20 mins.
Next Instant Pot recipe instructions 5 and garnish and serve.

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