Big-batch recipe · Vegetarian
Paneer and chickpea curry
6 portions, about 34 g of protein in each. 20 minutes of hands-on work and 35 min of cooking.
Where it sits in the week
What this one is for
On the vegetarian track this is a Sunday cook — the long session, which covers Monday to Wednesday. Cooked once, portioned hot, and eaten across the days that session covers — on the seven-day plan it turns up at Monday lunch.
Two portions is about 68 g of protein — our own arithmetic on the figure above, not a separate measurement. Protein targets on this site are computed against goal weight or lean mass rather than scale weight, which is the whole of Real Fuel.
Part of the vegetarian meal plan, cooked in the two-session prep schedule.
What goes in
- 2 lb paneer, cubed
- 2 cans (15 oz) chickpeas, drained
- 2 cans (14 oz) chopped tomatoes
- 1 cup Greek yoghurt, plus more to serve
- 2 onions, 6 cloves garlic, 2 inches ginger
- 3 tbsp garam masala, 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 2 tbsp ghee or butter
How
- Fry the paneer in ghee until it takes colour on two sides, then lift it out. Cubes that simmer from raw turn to sponge.
- Onion, garlic and ginger, 8 minutes. Spices, 1 minute. Tomatoes and chickpeas, 20 minutes.
- Yoghurt off the heat and stirred in slowly, or it splits.
- Paneer back in at the very end, only to warm through.
Keeping it: Fridge 4 days. It freezes acceptably but the paneer firms up — if you are freezing it, hold the paneer back and fry it fresh.
Nothing on this page is medical advice. It is a plan written for general strength training in healthy adults, and any condition or medication you are managing outranks it.
Doing it cheaper
Swaps that apply to this one
From the vegetarian track's budget version, filtered to the ingredients this recipe actually uses.
| Instead of | Use | Why it is worth it |
|---|---|---|
| Paneer | Halloumi, or press your own from a gallon of milk | A gallon of whole milk at $4.31 makes roughly a pound of paneer. It takes twenty minutes and a colander. |
| Small yoghurt pots | The largest tub sold, portioned yourself | Single-serve pots run two to three times the price per ounce. |
The prices behind these swaps, with sources, are in the protein-per-dollar table.
The rest of the vegetarian week
3 more big-batch recipes on this track, plus the seven-day plan they feed.