Warm, richly spiced, and built for a satisfying meal, How to Make Paneer is a vegetarian Indian sides made with whole milk and white vinegar in about 15 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: Not specified
  • Cook time: 15 minutes
  • Total time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Sides
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 1 liter whole milk
  • 1-1.5 tablespoons white vinegar (or lemon juice)

Method

  1. Add milk to a heavy bottom pan on medium heat.
  2. Let the milk come to a boil, stir often so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
  3. Once the milk has come to a boil, turn off the heat and start adding vinegar (or lemon juice), little at a time.
  4. At one point, the milk will curdle and you will see the whey separate. At that point, stop adding the curdling agent and wait for 5 minutes so that the milk curdles completely.
  5. Drain the curdled milk into a muslin cloth. Rinse the paneer with cold water so that the final paneer doesn’t have any taste of vinegar.
  6. Bring the ends of muslin cloth together and squeeze as much water as you can.
  7. Then flatten the paneer (wrapped inside the muslin cloth) and place it on a flat surface. Then place a heavy object on top for it to set. I placed a plate and then placed mortar & pestle on top. Leave it undisturbed for 1 to 2 hours.
  8. Once the paneer is set, remove it carefully from the muslin cloth and cut into cubes. Use paneer in any of your favorite recipes.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.