How To Soften Your Store-Bought Paneer With A Little Water

Paneer is a fresh cheese with a mild flavor and squeaky, bouncy chew that holds its shape in many famous Indian dishes like this recipe for palak paneer or paneer tikka masala. Unless you make paneer yourself or buy it fresh from a cheesemonger, packaged paneer is the widely available store-bought product that most recipes call for (like this Gopi brand on Amazon). The only downside to packaged paneer is that it tends to be firmer and more rubbery than the fresh variety. It can also harden as it sits in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, and then in your home fridge. Luckily, it's easy to soften store-bought paneer to instill that bouncy, supple chew we love about it. All you need is heat and water.

You can soften your store-bought paneer by soaking it in warm water or steaming it. Both methods will take less than 15 minutes. You can start by cutting the paneer into cubes or the shapes you'll be using in the dish you're preparing. If you're soaking the paneer, you can place the pieces in a glass or metal casserole dish in an even, single layer. Warm a small amount of water on the stove, in the microwave, or in a kettle before pouring it over the paneer just high enough to submerge it. Leave the paneer to soak for 5 minutes before draining it. You can also steam the cubes in a steamer basket, placed in a pot with an inch or two of water. Boil the water, cover the pot, and let the paneer steam for 10 to 15 minutes.

Other more time-consuming ways to soften paneer include letting it sit at room temperature for two to three hours, or soaking it in cold water in the fridge overnight. If you really want to improve the texture of store-bought paneer, you can deep fry the cubes in 350 degree Fahrenheit oil for a couple of minutes and then transfer the fried paneer to a dish of warm water to soak for five minutes. Deep frying creates pockets in the paneer's tight-knit texture, making it easier to absorb water, and therefore to soften. This two-step method gets you a soft center and a crispy, fried outer-coating.

Whichever method you choose for softening paneer, you should always add the paneer to stewed recipes at the very end. Letting the paneer stew with the rest of the ingredients for a prolonged period will actually oversaturate it and create an unpleasantly tough texture. That said, paneer isn't just for stewed dishes. We have a recipe for crispy air fryer paneer sticks that you can make in about 10 minutes. This recipe still uses the aromatic profile of Indian spices to create a flavorful coating for the sticks before frying them until crisp in the air fryer. If the sticks feel hard, try soaking them in warm water fresh out of the fryer. Pat them dry, and serve them with a flight of different chutneys or as a hearty addition to this golden Bombay sandwich.