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Restaurant Style Tofu Butter Masala Recipe – Easy Indian Butter Tofu “Paneer”. Dairy-free Tofu Paneer Butter Masala. Tofu is marinated and baked then simmered in tomato ginger cashew sauce. Vegan Butter Tofu Gluten-free Recipe. Jump to Recipe
You have got to make this Butter Tofu! Butter Tofu, Butter Masala or butter curry or whatever you want to call it. Red butter sauce for everything. Butter masala sauce is a popular sauce used with meats, paneer cheese or vegetables in Indian restaurants (that have a mostly North Indian Menu). It can be called makhani sauce (translates to “buttery” sauce) or butter sauce. Each restaurant can have its own version of sauce. I generally use my makhani sauce to make butter masala with veggies, tofu,chickpeas or fake meat. That makhani sauce is a rich creamy general masala sauce that makes everything taste amazing.
This butter sauce is a simpler and more restaurant like variation and can be used with veggies, chickpeas or any other additions. I use baked tofu to work as “paneer” to make a Butter Paneer. Serve with flatbread, rice, Roti or Vegan Naan. No Butter in this sauce. Feel free to use vegan butter instead of oil.
Video:
More restaurant style Indian Mains from the blog
- Mushroom Matar Masala
- Bombay Potato and Peas
- Tofu Pasanda
- Tofu Matar Masala
- Tofu in Spinach Curry – Saag Tofu
- Vegetable Jalfrezi – Veggies in smoky tangy curry
- Gobi Broccoli Makhani
- Tempeh Tikka Masala with Kale
Like this recipe? Then there are 20 more options in my Indian Kitchen book.
Tips and Troubleshooting:
- Troubleshoot: If the sauce flavor has a bitter after taste, it could be from ginger(over mature ginger can be bitter, use young juicy ginger), from the tomatoes that have not roasted well (cook them longer on medium low heat to roast well), or a larger amount of Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves, use less).
- Fenugreek leaves are the only ingredient in this recipe that needs to be either ordered online or picked up from an Indian store. To sub use 1/4 tsp powdered fenugreek (fenugreek seed powder), or 1/4 tsp ground mustard. Do get some fenugreek leaves as they are used in many Indian sauces and have a fabulous authentic flavor profile. Try the Instant Pot Version of Vegan Butter Chicken here.
- Soy-free: This recipe can be easily made soy-free with Chickpeas, seitan, Chickpea tofu or Veggies.
Step by Step Photos:
Marinate the Tofu, then bake.
Baked and ready for sauce.
Some elements of this recipe are inspired by Manjulas Kitchen and Veg Recipes of India Paneer butter masala recipe.
Make the Butter Sauce. I use canned diced tomatoes as they give a deeper color.
Fold in the Tofu, sliced ginger and sliced green chile. Serve hot with Roti or Naan. Let me know in the comments how it worked out! Please also rate the recipes.
What is Butter Masala
Butter Sauce, or makhani or butter masala sauce is a creamy tomato based sauce often found in Indian restaurants. It is a mild savory sweet creamy sauce that is often served with meats or paneer cheese (butter chicken or butter paneer). Versions differ based on restaurants and chefs and i have slightly different versions on the blog and my book too. Try all the sauces with this baked tofu to find the one that you love!
To make more like a restaurant version, add more oil and vegan butter 🙂
Butter Tofu Paneer - Restaurant Style Tofu Butter Masala Recipe
Ingredients
Baked Tofu "Paneer"
- 12 oz firm tofu, pressed between paper towels for 10 minutes, then cubed
- 1/2 tsp each of garam masala, ,paprika, salt, and turmeric
- 2 tsp ginger paste , or minced ginger
- 2 tsp garlic paste or minced, or 3/4 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1.5 tsp water, 1/2 tbsp
- 1.5 tbsp cornstarch, or other starch such as arrowroot
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast, optional
- 1 tsp oil
Butter Sauce:
- 1 tsp oil , or vegan butter
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 3 large ripe tomatoes , or 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 inch cube of ginger, 1/2 inch chopped, 1/2 inch julienned or thinly sliced into sticks
- 1 hot or mild green chile juilenned or thinly sliced, or use very thinly sliced green bell pepper
- Cashew cream made with with 1/4 cup soaked, 15 mins cashews blended with 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp paprika , or kashmiri chili powder
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp kasooori methi - dried fenugreek leaves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar or other sweetener, to preference
Instructions
Bake the Tofu:
- Press and cube the tofu if you havent already. In a bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients under baked tofu, to make a marinade. Add tofu and toss well. Let it sit for 15 min (optional). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F / 200ºc. Place the tofu cubes on parchment lined sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
Make the Butter Sauce:
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until golden. You can also add in 1 bay leaf and 1 cinnamon stick with the garlic for additional flavor. Remove these before serving.
- Puree the tomato with the chopped ginger and half the green chile. Add to the skillet and cook until the puree starts to thicken and does not taste raw tomatoey. Dont wash the blender.
- In the same blender, blend the cashews and water until smooth. Blend the cashews for a minute, let it rest for a minute and then blend again for about a minute for a creamy result. Works with unsoaked cashews. Or use premade thin cashew cream (about 1/2 cup).
- Reserve 1 tbsp of the cream for garnish. Add the rest of the cashew cream to the skillet. Add spices, fenugreek leaves, salt and sugar and mix well. Use 1/2 cup water to rinse out your blender and add to the skillet. Mix and Bring to a boil. Taste and adjust salt, heat (add cayenne) and sweet. Add more water if needed for preferred consistency. Add more cashew cream for creamier.
- Fold in the baked tofu. Simmer for a minute. Mix in the julienned ginger and green chile. Alternatively, mix half of the ginger and chile and use half as garnish. Add a drizzle of the cashew cream and other garnishes as pepper flakes, chopped cilantro. Serve over Easy Garlic Naan, rice or roti.
Video
Notes
With soy curls: Add 1 cup soy curls directly to the skillet at step 4 with cashew cream and 1 cup of water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Nutritional values based on one serving Nut-free: Use coconut cream (thick white part from a can of full fat coconut milk) To sub fenugreek leaves: Use 1/4 - 1/3 tsp powdered fenugreek (fenugreek seed powder), or 1/4 tsp ground mustard. No onion garlic; this recipe is already onion free. Use zucchini to sub garlic in the sauce. Add 1/2 tsp more fenugreek leaves to balance the flavor.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is an incredible recipe! I agree that the tofu could stand on its own. It did not get spongy at all, which I find some oven baked tofu can, but instead almost had a texture like paneer. I will be making this again and again. I doubled the recipe with great results. I am going to try to a portion for later as well.
awesome!
Help! I’ve often read ‘restaurant style’ in many Indian recipes over the years and have been puzzled as to what this means? Time spent preparing/cooking, ingredients? Google gives no clues 🤔
Thats a great question. There are several Indian dishes that have homestyle versions and restaurant style versions. Most are pretty similar recipe with just more oil, butter, cream, spices, sweet for the restaurant versions. While some dishes are just made by restaurants as the chefs come up with it, so they are a chef creation but not really something you would find in everyday Indian cooking.
Butter masala when made homestyle uses less spices, no sweetener and less oil. Restaurants usually like their sauces to have higher spicing, fat, and more sweeter flavor profile.
So this sauce uses slightly more spices/flavors and uses sugar or sweetener for a creamy silky sauce should match a general Indian restaurant Butter sauce. Hope this helps.
Hi Richa!
I love your blog and your book! Many thanks for your AMAZING recipes!!! 🙂
I will have some friends for dinner in a few days and I will be doing this wonderful recipe (with basmati rice). I would like to do another indian dish to accompany the butter tofu (maybe something with vegetables or lentils or chickpeas) to make a kind of thali…. What would you suggest?
I will be also serving papadums and a mango chutney.
Thank you!
i’d probably do sides of my baked aloo gobi, or 8 spice veggies, and some chickpea curry(chcikpea coconut or chickpea spinach), or jalfrezi.
https://fettabbau-trim.today/?s=aloo+gobi
https://fettabbau-trim.today/?s=chickpea+curry
https://fettabbau-trim.today/?s=jalfrezi
Many many thanks!
🙂
Thank-you so much for this recipe Richa. It was absolutely delicious!!! Even my anti-vegan (I’m working on him slowly) son enjoyed the sauce very much. I made a double batch so used 1/2 fresh tomatoes and 1/2 canned. As I am trying hard to get used to tofu, but it still isn’t a fave, as well as doing the tofu in the recipe I stirred in some cauliflower pieces that I had roasted in a little oil and garlic and it tasted delish in with the sauce and tofu. Your recipes are always awesome!!! Thank-you again for your great work 🙂
Thats awesome! So glad you all loved it! Tofu can take a while to like, keep at it with making flavorful, saucy dishes where the texture can be hidden
MAKE THIS RECIPE. My boyfriend and I wanted something that tasted like our favorite Indian place. We have not gotten anywhere near that except for now!!!! This was incredible!!! Very affordable and easy once you have the spices mixed and ready to go! This is on our rotation for SURE! 5 stars!
thanks!
Hello! This looks amazing! I’d love to make it, but my son is allergic to Cashews and so I find recipes that use it as a cream base hard to keep vegan with the rich creamy texture. He is also allergic to peanuts. 🙁 Is there a substitute you recommend that I might use in place of Cashews?
you can use a mix of coconut cream and almond or macadamia nuts. you want to soak and blend the almonds really well
Thank you! I will try that!
This was so great! I made for my bf and I and we ate it all. Next time i’m going to make a double batch! I made a few adjustments: (1) I marinated the tofu for several hours and baked the tofu for longer so that it would get firmer, (2) I attempted to grind some fenugreek seeds I had on hand with my mortar and pestle, but it was very difficult, so I just threw in the chunky bits that I was able to break down and it was still ok, (3) instead of garnishing with pepper and ginger, I blended them into the sauce. I liked this recipe so much that I ordered your cookbook. Thanks for the great food!
yay awesome!
Made this two nights ago, it was so delicious. I can’t wait to make it again. Thanks for a bomb recipe 💙
yay!
I tried many of your recipes already, and just found my favorite one, made it yesterday and it was gone in minutes, ready for the second round tonight!
Many thanks Richa, hugs from Hungary!
yay!
I am almost completely out of groceries but stumbled upon this recipe and somehow had everything for it. I am so grateful for my nearly empty pantry because this is one of the best meals I’ve made in weeks. I couldn’t stop eating it! If I wasn’t feeling like making the sauce I honestly think the baked marinated tofu could stand on its own. I always have tofu, cashews, and canned tomatoes on hand, so I think this is going to become a weekly meal. THANK YOU FOR THIS AMAZING RECIPE!
awesome!