We’ve started eating a lot more vegetarian meals as part of a concerted effort to buy better meat where the animal has been treated well. As it is a lot more expensive than intensively farmed meat, we eat a lot less of it and are therefore eating more vegetarian meals.

We’d only really had paneer as part of a curry so it was nice to eat it prepared in this way as it has a lot more texture when not in a sauce. There’s loads of flavour in the beetroot puree which provides sweetness to balance against the pickled element.

Serves 4

Olive Magazine

Ingredients

• paneer 400g
• greek yogurt 100g
• garam masala 5 tsp
• turmeric 1 tsp
• cayenne pepper 1 tsp
• tomato purée 2 tsp
• demerara sugar 1 heaped tbsp
• white wine vinegar 150ml
• beetroot or rainbow chard stems 4
• beetroot 2 medium with stems and leaves
• dessicated coconut 1 tbsp
• shallots 2 large
• milk 50ml
• plain flour for coating
• vegetable oil for frying
• mayonnaise 150g
• mild curry powder 1 tsp
• flatbreads 4
• coriander leaves

Instructions

1. Dice the paneer into 4cm cubes and soak in water for 30 minutes. Drain, then combine the marinade ingredients and mix with the paneer. Cover and chill overnight, or for at least 1 hour.
2. To souse the stems, dissolve the sugar and some salt in the vinegar and bring to the boil. Cut the stems into 2x1cm strips and blanch in the liquor for 2-3 minutes until cooked but still firm. Leave in the liquor to cool and steep in the fridge overnight.
3. Heat the oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2. Wrap each beetroot in foil with a little salt and cook in the oven until soft when poked with a skewer, about 1½ hours. Peel while still warm, cut into chunks and blitz in a blender until very smooth. Stir through the coconut and season.
4. Slice the shallots into rings the thickness of a £1 coin. Soak in the milk for 10 minutes to soften the flavour, drain then dredge in seasoned flour. Heat 3cm oil in a deep frying pan until a cube of bread browns in 1 minute, then fry the shallot rings until very lightly browned. Drain and season.
5. For the curry mayo, stir the curry powder through the mayonnaise.
6. Just before serving, skewer the marinated paneer and grill over a medium heat on the barbecue or under the grill, until it is soft and lightly coloured.
7. To assemble, spread a generous spoonful of the beetroot purée on a flatbread and put 6-7 cubes of paneer on top. Garnish with the soused stems and curry mayo, with plenty of shallot rings and a few coriander leaves.