Burgers were never my choice of meal until I discovered how quickly and easily I can make them with the added benefit of making them a low-calorie meal. In all these years, I probably might’ve had a burger about 3-4 times, but not more than that for sure. When we used to live in Brazil, we didn’t have many vegetarian options in burgers there. At McDonalds, they used to consider Mc.fish and chicken burger vegetarian as they are white meat. So, twice or thrice I had the experience of getting a wrong burger (either fish or chicken) in my hand and it was difficult for me to make them understand that white meat is non vegetarian. So, I gave up going to McDonalds for quite a while. In India, we have a whole lot of vegetarian options. We get spicy paneer tikka and veg patty in burgers at McDonalds in India. But I rarely ate once or twice as they are mostly deep fried. Outside India, it’s really hard to find vegetarian options except when we go to Indian restaurants. Most of the times it’s either french fries or tomato cheese pizza. If we want to have pasta it’s either penne or spaghetti in arrabbiata sauce. For salad, it is mostly the routine Caeser salad or Green salad without chicken. Ugh, it’s so boring to even look at the menu sometimes which is why we mostly prefer to eat at home. Comparatively, I think that here in the U.S we have much more vegetarian options available. At home I try to cook different cuisines to enjoy the flavors of different foods around the world.
It was one of those evenings when we had a long day at the hospital and came back home very exhausted. Although it was only a bandage change for my daughter, it took very long. More than the physical strain, the emotional trauma is greater in these kind of situations. We reached home by 7 in the evening and we were all starving. I was not in a mood to cook and honestly lacked the energy as well. I wanted to make something quick, easy and nutritious too. There is a McDonalds right in front of our building, but I doubted they had a vegetarian option. So, I told my husband to get just the burger buns from McDonalds and I would prepare the spicy paneer (cottage cheese) stuffing to use as a patty.
While he went out to buy the burger bread, I started preparing the spicy paneer. First, I washed the paneer and cut it into the desired shape. I marinated them in 1cup of plain yogurt ( It was enough for me to make 5-6 burgers, you can vary the quantity of ingredients depending on your requirement) and added spices and salt to it. The spices included turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and garam masala (whole spice mix powder). I wanted it to be spicy so added a bit more of red chili powder. ( You can put spices according to your tolerance to it. If you are making it for kids, just skip the spices). I added 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to it. I made holes on the paneer slices with a fork so that the spices can go inside the paneer and tastes better. While the paneer was resting in marination for 5 minutes, I started cutting the vegetables to place on the top of the paneer. I chopped tomato, onion and green bell pepper into thin slices and washed few lettuce leaves to use.
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I then heated a pan on the stove and put two table spoons of cooking oil (you can use olive oil too, if you want) and once it was hot enough I put the marinated paneer slices in the pan. Do not pour the entire marinated sauce that is left into the pan, just the paneer (as we are not making a curry, we don’t want it to consist of too much gravy). After 2 mins I turned the paneer slices to the other side. I kept the flame on low so that the paneer wouldn’t burn. Once the paneer was soft and cooked, I turned off the stove. You can also microwave the paneer for 2-3 minutes if you don’t want to fry it in the oil. Or if you’re just making it for one or two people and you want to be hassle free from cooking on the stove and all, you can use the microwave. Just make sure you’re not overheating it otherwise the paneer will become hard and it won’t taste good.
My husband brought the buns. I was glad that they sold the plain buns. I took a bun and kept paneer slice on it. Then on the other half, I kept a slice of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and capsicum. I then topped it with the sauces like ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. I placed it on the top of the other half of paneer. You can microwave it for 30 secs, if you want your cheese to be melted. But I just wanted to have it the way it was. And my Spicy Paneer Burger was ready to eat! 😀 It was delicious!!
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It had the sourness of yogurt and lemon with a touch of spice, the tenderness of paneer just melted in the mouth and the vegetables on the top added crunchiness to it. The best part about this recipe is that it hardly takes 10-15 mins for the whole preparation and it’s not a deep fried stuffing inside. Paneer is very rich in protein so I’m not eating any junk here. So, it’s not only a quick and easy meal but also a nutritious and scrumptious meal too. And trust me, for an evening meal or dinner it’s quite filling to the stomach. This is an easy meal to prepare for kitty parties, get-togethers and birthday parties, particularly if you are looking for a vegetarian one. You can grill the paneer in the oven if you are making it in a larger quantity. With a bowl of french fries as a side, it will be a full meal. Hope you’ll enjoy the taste of it. Try and let me know how you like it. Happy eating 😀
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