Sweet ‘n’ Sour Broccoli Paneer

Tangy and sweet Chinese sauce with broccoli, red pepper, cashews and paneer.

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese, Lacto-Vegetarian

Keyword: Chinese, Lacto-Vegetarian, Paneer

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 10

Servings:

Calories: 326kcal

Equipment

1 Kadai or Wok
1 Sauce Pan

Ingredients

Sweet 'n' Sour Sauce

½ cup Water
¼ cup Rice Wine Vinegar Or any white vinegar
⅓ cup Jaggery Or brown sugar, packed
¼ cup Ketchup
1 tbsp Dark soy sauce Or 1 tbsp regular soy sauce or Tamari
2 tsp Corn starch
2 tbsp Water

Vegetables et al

1 cup Broccoli Fresh florets, parboiled
½ Red pepper Julienned
½ cup Paneer Bit size chunks
1 Tomato Med. red, finely chopped
2 tsp Green chili Fresh, finely chopped
⅓ cup Raw Cashews
½ Onion Finely diced
2 tsp Garlic Fresh pressed
2 tsp Ginger Fresh grated
½ tsp Black peppercorn Fresh ground
2 tbsp Sesame oil

Instructions

Prepare the Vegetables

Cut the fresh broccoli into florets. Bring a pot of salted water to boil, with enough water to cover the broccoli. Add the broccoli and bring to a slow boil again, cooking for 2 minutes. Removed the broccoli from the water and plunge into cold ice water to cool immediately. Set aside to drain when cold. You can even make this in advance and store in the frig.
Cut the red pepper into julienne strips. Dice the onions and tomato, press garlic, peel and grate ginger; cut the paneer into small bite size pieces.
Set all the vegetables aside.

Prepare the sauce

Mix the ½ cup water, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, and jaggery in a sauce pan. Stirring to mix well, bring to a boil.
Prepare a slurry of the corn starch and the 2 tbsp of water. Mix well, then slowly pour into the sweet 'n' sour sauce stirring constantly until thick. Then remove from heat, and set aside.

Put it all together

Add the 2 tbsp of sesame oil to a kadai or wok and stir constantly over medium high heat.
Add the finely chopped green chili; then the chopped onion. Cook and stir for several minutes until the onions soften, becoming translucent.
Add the tomatoes, stir and cook for another several minutes until the tomatoes are soften and cooked.
Add the garlic, ginger, red pepper, paneer, cashews and black pepper. Stir and cook a few minutes.
Add the parboiled broccoli, stirring well to mix and heat.
Finally, add the sweet 'n' sour sauce; toss to mix well and heat. Serve immediately.

Notes

I had a craving for the sweet ‘n’ sour Chinese dishes we used to have when I was growing up in New Hampshire. The sauce was red and coyly sweet and had pineapples and lychee nuts in it (we kids called them eye balls). I would definitely love this with pineapple chunks, so if you like them, add them! Same goes for lychee nuts.

Funny thing about lychee nuts – it wasn’t until 40 -50 years later when I moved to India that I had my first fresh lychee nut. At first I had no idea what the spikey orb was; even after hesitantly trying one, did I have the bright epiphany that this was a lychee nut. They come into season once a year and last less than a month. I eat hundreds of them in that short season. I love seeing the first lychee nuts show up in Vrindavan around June. By then end of June, the season is over.

Nutrition

Sweet ‘n’ Sour Broccoli Paneer