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Low-Carb Paneer Makhani

Maria SilvaUpdated 9 October 2023★★★★★4.7 (251 ratings)

Ready in 30m
7.8 g net carbs
458 kcal
Serves 3

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Low-Carb Paneer Makhani (grain-free, keto, primal, vegetarian)

In this week's guest post, I'm excited to introduce Maria Silva, the author at Maria.Recipes, who created a delicious and easy-to-prepare vegetarian keto recipe featuring Indian-style homemade paneer cheese. For more keto recipes, don't forget to follow Maria on Instagram!

Indian food is definitely my favorite, but it is traditionally full of fat, carbs and sugar. Curries are almost always eaten with rice AND rotis (wheat flatbread), and desserts are so sweet I get a sugar rush every time. Not great for keto!

But traditional Indian recipes, when slightly tweaked, can become a delicious low-carb meal, both for people who want to find new interesting ways to cook meat, and also for vegetarians, as Indian food has a very strong vegetarian tradition.

Paneer makhani (literally, “Cottage cheese in butter sauce”) is one of the most decadent vegetarian Indian dishes. It consists of a spicy tomato-based sauce cooked in butter and then garnished with heavy whipping cream, making a creamy, spicy, tangy and sweet curry that everyone loves.

Can I Use a Slow Cooker?

Yes, you can use a slow cooker. In fact, the Instant Pot does both! To make this vegetarian low-carb Paneer Makhani recipe in a slow cooker (crockpot), brown the ingredients in a heavy-based pan and then transfer into a slow cooker. Cook on low for 2 to 3 hours or on high for 1 to 2 hours.

Step-by-step

Add the butter to a pan over medium-high heat. Once it has melted, add the bayleaf and the cumin seeds. Let them cook for about 45 seconds.
Add the onion, garlic and ginger with a pinch of salt. Cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until the onion is very soft.
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stevia, coriander powder and turmeric, as well as ¹/₃ cup water. Cook about 5 minutes until the tomatoes are broken down.
Take out the bayleaf if you can find it, then transfer everything into a blender and blend until you have a fine paste. You can add some water if it is too thick.
Put he sauce back into the pan over medium-high heat, and add the cubed paneer.
Let it all simmer together for 5 minutes.
Turn off the stove, add the cream, garam masala and fenugreek leaves. Mix well.
Garnish with coriander and eat with cauli-rice or with flax roti.

Low-Carb Paneer Makhani

Recipe

Low-Carb Paneer Makhani

★★★★★4.7 (251 ratings)

Paneer Makhani, meaning cottage cheese in butter sauce, is one of the tastiest vegetarian Indian dishes. Spicy ...

Hands on: 10m
Overall: 30m
Servings: 3

7.8 g
Net carbs: 15.6 g
Protein: 40.4 g
Fat: 458
kcal

Ingredients makes 3 servings

Instructions

Add the butter to a pan over medium-high heat. Once it has melted, add the bayleaf and the cumin seeds. Let them cook for about 45 seconds.
Add the onion, garlic and ginger with a pinch of salt. Cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until the onion is very soft.
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stevia, coriander powder and turmeric, as well as ¹/₃ cup water. Cook about 5 minutes until the tomatoes are broken down.
Take out the bayleaf if you can find it, then transfer everything into a blender and blend until you have a fine paste. You can add some water if it is too thick.
Put he sauce back into the pan over medium-high heat, and add the cubed paneer.
Let it all simmer together for 5 minutes.
Turn off the stove, add the cream, garam masala and fenugreek leaves. Mix well.
Garnish with coriander and eat with cauli-rice or with flax roti.

Nutrition per serving, about 1 cup

Carbs 7%Protein 14%Fat 79% of calories

Net carbs: 7.8 g
Total carbs: 10.2 g
Fiber: 2.4 g
Sugars: 6.7 g
Protein: 15.6 g
Fat: 40.4 g
Saturated fat: 25.2 g
Calories: 458 kcal
Sodium: 82 mg · 3.57% RDA
Magnesium: 16 mg · 3.94% RDA
Potassium: 256 mg · 12.8% EMR

Nutrition by ingredient

Per about 1 cup	Net carbs	Protein	Fat	kcal
Paneer	2.7 g	13.9 g	18.5 g	231
Butter, unsalted, grass-fed	0 g	0.1 g	11.5 g	102
Bay leaf, dried	0.2 g	0 g	0 g	1
Cumin, spices	0.1 g	0.1 g	0.1 g	1
Onion, brown (yellow), raw	1.6 g	0.2 g	0 g	9
Tomatoes, fresh	1.8 g	0.6 g	0.1 g	12
Garlic, fresh	0.3 g	0.1 g	0 g	1
Ginger root, fresh	0.2 g	0 g	0 g	1
Turmeric, spices (dried, ground)	0.2 g	0 g	0 g	1
Garam masala, spice mix	0 g	0 g	0 g	0
Cream, heavy whipping, pouring, full-fat (30-40% fat)	0.7 g	0.5 g	10.1 g	98
Salt, pink Himalayan rock salt	0 g	0 g	0 g	0
Coriander (cilantro), fresh	0 g	0 g	0 g	0
Total	7.8 g	15.6 g	40.4 g	458

Serving size about 1 cup

Gluten free
Nut free
Pork free
Avocado free
Coconut free
Fish free
Shellfish free
Beef free
Pescatarian
Vegetarian

Comments & ratings (16)

4.7251 ratings

5 ★201
4 ★31
3 ★8
2 ★4
1 ★7

Cass15 May 2023
Made this recipe tonight, and it was completely delicious! I will definitely make again.
Brandi27 July 2022
Tasty! Will make again.
Sujeet Bhatte30 July 2020
The macros are incorrect. I added the recipe in myfitnesspal and it comes to 16g of carb.
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/view/265976355458429
1. Martina @ KetoDietAuthor2 August 2020
  Hi Sujeet, My Fitness Pal (and many others) use non-verified crowd sourced entries in their calculations - this meal in particular is calculated incorrectly. We have the correct values because we use verified ingredients in all of our recipes that we share on the blog and in the app. You can read more about what we do to minimise errors which is what many apps fail to do: Barcode Scanning and Food Database in the KetoDiet App
  Recently we also added "trust levels" into our app: Activity Tracking is Now Available in the KetoDiet App! - This enables users to see how reliable the sources are.
Georgia28 January 2018
Is this 458 calories per serve?
1. Martina @ KetoDietAuthor29 March 2018
  Yes, that is correct.
mara15 January 2018
You can add clove , cardamon and pinch of cinnamon , it will bring imaging flavor !!
Mohuya Dey13 November 2017
This looks so great. A simple homemade delicious food which is also good for health. Thanks for this recipe, I would definitely try my hands on these too.
Anna15 June 2017
Another great recipe 😊 I was so proud of myself to have made paneer, which was surprisingly easy! This was absolutely delicious. Thank you for having yet another wonderful vegetarian recipe! Quite good.
Sonia Subhas26 May 2017
Seriously delicious !
Tara10 April 2017
Omg. This was amazing . I made it lower carb by using ginger/garlic powder, instead of fresh. Would you mind if I added a version of this to my website? I'm starting to change my opinion of healthy- and need a few really fantastic recipes to get people started...
1. Martina @ KetoDietAuthor20 April 2017
  Hi Tara, it's fine with me as long as you mention the original recipe. Thanks!
Ulu3 April 2017
This was so delicious! I thought the video link to making home made paneer was really helpful. FUN!!! I made cheese! My husband and I both loved this over cauli rice. I don't like stevia much so I used a little powdered erythritol instead and it worked well. Making it again tonight; it's in our rotation, for sure!!! Thanks for the yum!
Margot25 February 2017
I made this delicious recipe last night. I'm a big fan of Indian food and haven't had a curry since going Keto earlier year. So this was a Big Treat.
I also made the coconut chapatis because I miss Naan bread so much. They were a little like peshwari naan as they have a lovely coconut flavour. But I need to practice them more.
I recommend this for being big in flavour and perfect for low carb.
Next time I'm trying this sauce with broccoli and cauliflower.
Therese24 February 2017
OMG soo yummy! I need to try this this evening! =)
Ky21 February 2017
I do not see stevia or tomato paste in the ingredients list with an amount I only see them written within the instructions. Looks great though!