Five Weeknight Dishes
The firm, fresh Indian cheese is put to delicious use in this streamlined, kid-favorite mattar paneer.
There are certain foods that have the power to stop me when I roll by them at the grocery store, even if they’re not on my shopping list.
One of them is paneer, the firm, fresh Indian cheese. I picked it up last week and knew immediately that I’d use it in mattar paneer, with its creamy, spiced tomato sauce suffused with ginger and garlic. Our version on New York Times Cooking is streamlined for easy prep on busy nights. (I’m probably not the only one among us staring down a packed schedule these days.)
That recipe is below, along with four others for the week that will hopefully grab you, delight you or just plain help you out. Requests? Ideas? Favorite recipe from “Easy Weeknight Dinners”? (Thank you to everyone who has picked up a copy!) Email me anytime at dearemily@nytimes.com. I love to hear from you.
I’m also making:
Salt-and-pepper roast chicken, roasted carrots, perfect buttermilk pancakes, s’mores.
1. Mattar Paneer (Peas and Paneer in Spiced Tomato Gravy)
I don’t think I’ll ever forget this description from Emerson, 6, which appeared in a special feature we did about Cooking recipes kids love: “Just the flavors are just like dancing … like they’re dancing on your tongue and … really just like delicious.” Zainab Shah’s version of this classic dish is indeed delicious, and you can use firm tofu instead of paneer if that’s what’s readily available — or if you’d like to make it vegan.
View this recipe.
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