Butter Paneer Pizza
Feb 08, 2016, Updated Jan 02, 2018
Butter Paneer Pizza has a creamy curry as the pizza sauce and is topped with pieces of spiced paneer. A great vegetarian pizza!
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Pizza gets an Indian makeover! This Butter Paneer Pizza has a creamy curry as the pizza sauce and is topped with pieces of spiced paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese).
Sometimes you find the most amazing food in the most unexpected places. See if I told you that you get like the best paneer pizza in Seattle and not in Delhi and Mumabi, you won’t believe it right? But my friends, that is the truth! I have never been a huge pizza fan, I like it but I don’t LOVE it and I only like what I make at home, with less cheese. Back home, I really liked the India version of pizza – the paneer pizza. When I moved to Seattle, one day my husband took me to this pizza place. He said they make Indian fusion pizzas and on their list was chicken tikka pizza, butter paneer pizza, palak paneer pizza and so on! I was impressed with the list however I didn’t think they can ever beat the Indian pizza back home. But boy was I wrong! The paneer pizza was fab, in fact the best Indian pizza I have ever had. In fact now when I go back to India, I never eat the paneer pizza, because we get the best one in Seattle! Amazing isn’t it? This pizza place is so popular among Indians that I have heard people taking the pizza along with them for their friends in NYC!
I have made paneer pizza before but it wasn’t like the one at this pizza place. So this time around I tried to recreate their butter panner pizza. I have to say that the pizza turned out amazing and I am pretty sure that you guys are going to love it too! If you are a non-vegetarian and like the Indian Butter Chicken, then you just replace the paneer with chicken and follow rest of the recipe as it is. For this pizza, you first make the butter paneer and then spread it on top of your pizza crust. So basically the curry serves as the pizza sauce in this recipe. You can either use homemade pizza crust or to save some time, you can also buy one from the store.
I thought this would be a perfect time to share this recipe since Valentine’s Day is almost here and what better than a pizza to celebrate the day. You can make this pizza on 14th feb and finish off your dinner with this panna cotta or pavlova. Now that would be perfect, isn’t it? Hope you guys give this butter paneer pizza a try and enjoy it as much as we did!
Method
To  a pan on medium heat, add quartered tomatoes, green chili, minced ginger and garlic, cloves, cardamom [I crush them up and then add to the pan] and black peppercorns. Add water to it and mix.
Cook the mixture on medium heat for 15-20 minutes or till tomatoes are really all mushed up. You can also do this in a pressure cooker.
Switch off the flame, remove the cloves, peppercorn, and skin of the cardamom pods and puree the mixture using an immersion blender (like I did) or wait for the mixture to cool down a little and then puree in a regular blender.
Put the pan with the gravy on heat again. [I didn’t strain the gravy here since I was making pizza, if I was making butter paneer to eat it with naan or paratha, I would have definitely strained it. ] Add butter, salt and kashmiri red chili powder to it. The kashmiri red chili powder gives a beautiful red color to the gravy. Let the gravy simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
Add milk, cream, honey and crushed kasuri methi. Give it a nice stir. Check the seasoning and adjust salt and chili to taste. You can always add some red chili powder if you want to up the spice levels.
Add chopped cilantro and mix. 
Now add the cubed paneer pieces and mix. Sprinkle garam masala on top and mix. Cook for another 2 minutes and then remove pan from heat.
Spread the prepared butter paneer on your pizza crust. A good way to do this is to take only the gravy with a spoon and spread on the crust like you would spread your pizza sauce and then put the paneer cubes on top. [PS: I did not use the whole butter paneer on the pizza and was left with around 1/2 cup of it]
Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese all over.
Bake the pizza at 500 F degrees for 5 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 3-4 minutes or till the crust is lightly browned and the cheese is all melted and bubbly. Sprinkle some more chopped cilantro on top and serve the butter paneer pizza immediately.
* I used my homemade paneer recipe to make paneer for this pizza. It’s really so easy and the homemade paneer is so much more delicious than the store bought.
* You can adjust the spice levels to taste. If you want a spicier pizza, add more green chilies while cooking the tomatoes. Also adjust the amount of cheese to taste and preference.
* I was left with around 1/2 cup of butter paneer after adding it to the pizza. You can simply eat that with paratha or naan.
Butter Paneer Pizza
Ingredients
1 pizza crust [homemade or store bought]
Butter Paneer
- 1.25 cups paneer cubes
- 4 large tomatoes [around 550 grams] quartered
- 2.25 cups water
- 4 green cardamom pods crushed
- 3 black peppercorns
- 2-3 cloves
- 2 green chili chopped
- 3 teaspoons minced garlic and ginger
- 1 teaspoon kashmiri mirch powder
- 1 teaspoon kasuri methi crushed
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/8 cup milk
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro + more to sprinkle later
- salt to taste
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- To a pan on medium heat, add quartered tomatoes, green chili, minced ginger and garlic, cloves, cardamom pods [I crush them and then add to the pan] and black peppercorns. Add water to it and mix.
- Cook the mixture on medium heat for 15-20 minutes or till tomatoes are really all mushed up. You can also do this in a pressure cooker.
- Switch off the flame, remove the cloves, peppercorn, and skin of the cardamom pods and puree the mixture using an immersion blender (like I did) or wait for the mixture to cool down a little and then puree in a regular blender.
- Put the pan with the gravy on heat again. Add butter, salt and kashmiri red chili powder to it. The kashmiri red chili powder gives a beautiful red color to the gravy. Let the gravy simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.
- Add milk, cream, honey and crushed kasuri methi. Give it a nice stir. Check the seasoning and adjust salt and chili to taste. You can always add some red chili powder if you want to up the spice levels.
- Add chopped cilantro and mix.
- Now add the cubed paneer pieces and mix. Sprinkle garam masala on top and mix. Cook for another 2 minutes and then remove pan from heat.
- Spread the prepared butter paneer on your pizza crust. A good way to do this is to take only the gravy with a spoon and spread on the crust like you would spread your pizza sauce and then put the paneer cubes on top.
- Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese all over.
- Bake the pizza at 500 F degrees for 5 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 3-4 minutes or till the crust is lightly browned and the cheese is all melted and bubbly.
- Sprinkle some more chopped cilantro on top and serve the butter paneer pizza immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Butter Paneer Pizza
Killer. I love the subtle flavors in the curry base, that come from the layers of ingredients. If your tomatoes are watery just cook the curry for longer until it has the right pizza sauce consistency.
glad to know Pete
Thank you so much for this recipe! I used to live in Bellevue and really miss the Indian pizzas from Can-Am pizza. I can’t wait to try this recipe.
give it a try!
Amazing. Would cost less to make this Gourmet dish at home and tastier. Thnks
Tried the recipe, sauce was too watery. I cooked it for a while to dry up the water, still didn’t,t stick to the pizza. Tomatoes have enough water in them , next Time I will not put any water in it. Flavors are good
it was only a suggestion, of course that recipe is for a curry and not for pizza sauce. The sauce that I made for this pizza was given here which was on stove-top.
Missing this pizza after moving from Seattle?..I was looking for a recipe which would replenish my taste buds.. Thanks will sure give a try.
My one question is, I have always smelled a cilantro flavour along with turmeric in the butter paneer pizza… Can we add a pinch or should we avoid it for the color??
And can we add in capsicum, onion as well ??.
Thanks.
Hi Saran, you may try the turmeric! and yes bell peppers and onion would go well here 🙂
What a great recipe! Pizza looks yummy 🙂
Thanks! It’s one of my favorites!
Thanks Sabrina!
Thanks Cheyanne!!
Thanks Medha, it is the best!
Thanks Mira!
Thanks Kelly!
Thanks Anu!
Thanks Danielle, I think you will like it!
That’s perfect then!! Hope he gives this pizza a try! 🙂
Thank you, hope you try it!
I know! I would have never known! Thanks Rachelle!
thank you Jen!
Thank you Angie!
I know right, who would have expected!!
This pizza rocks! It looks so delicious and satisfying ♥
summerdaisy.net
Thank you Summer!
OMG OMG OMG! Indian-Italian fusion… PINCH ME!
haha you need to try this Emma!
These look so good…my daughter is going to love them..thanks for sharing this recipe…
Thanks Puja..hope you try it!