Substitue for paneer? Have low fat milk, plain youghurt, cream cheese and butter
I have a recipie for Skewered Pumpkin (from India Cookbook by Pushpesh Pant). Basically it's grated pumpkin, paneer, onion, breadcrumbs and spices moulded into a sausage shape around a skewer and cooked over a grill or in a tandoor.
This calls for 300g of paneer. I do not have paneer but I do have low fat milk, plain yoghurt, cream cheese and also butter. Can I substitute the paneer with some combination of these?
Alternatively, will paneer work with if I try to make it from low-fat milk? Or does it rely on the milk fats? How much milk would I need to start with to finish with 300g of paneer?
I'm aware of How do you make paneer? so there is no need to repeat answers given there.
Best Answer
No, you can't substitute any of those for paneer. This should be pretty obvious given that you're trying to skewer and grill the paneer. It's a firm cheese that doesn't melt, while any combination of milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and butter will melt, if it's not liquid already. The best substitutes would be other cheeses like halloumi that don't melt, or else tofu. A firm cottage cheese would probably also do okay.
You also can't really use a cheese that melts in something like this. First of all, it just could never be the same texture, and the flavor would be a bit different too. But it could be worse than that. You didn't say exactly how much pumpkin, onion, and breadcrumbs you have in there, but generally, if you put a melting cheese in there, it's at best going to make the whole thing less solid and at worst it'll drip out as you grill it or conceivably even let it fall apart.
But you can indeed make paneer with the low fat milk, though. The texture just won't be quite as good - a little tougher, more dry and maybe even crumbly - since there's less fat and relatively more protein. With whole milk, 2L of milk makes ~350 grams of paneer, though that can of course vary depending on how well you drain/press it. Low fat milk won't have quite as high a yield, but you can probably still just start with 2L. The texture is probably the bigger problem. (And it'll of course be worse if your milk is 1% than if it's 2%.)
Pictures about "Substitue for paneer? Have low fat milk, plain youghurt, cream cheese and butter"
Is paneer same as cream cheese?
No, paneer and cream cheese are different. Though they are both made in a similar manner by separating cheese curds from the whey, they both have different starting points. While Paneer is made just with milk, Cream Cheese is made with a 1:2 ratio of Milk:Cream.What can substitute cream cheese?
11 Fantastic Substitutes for Cream Cheese- Cottage cheese. Cottage cheese and cream cheese have several similarities, but cottage cheese is slightly lower in fat and has a chunkier texture ( 1 , 2 ). ...
- Greek yogurt. ...
- Ricotta. ...
- Mascarpone. ...
- Hummus. ...
- Kefir with chia seeds. ...
- Neufch\xe2tel. ...
- Silken tofu.
Which paneer is low in fat?
Amandeep's low fat paneer is full of calcium and protein. It has all the goodness of milk and only 0.1 grams of fat. We at National dairy are recognized as a healthy dairy brand manufacturing packaged low fat paneer for the healthy India.Can I substitute fat free cream cheese for regular?
Fat-free dairy can be substituted for full-fat in most recipes. And low-fat products can nearly always be used in place of their full-fat counterparts.HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CREAM CHEESE Without NUTS! 2 Easy Methods
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Milan, Milan, Anna Tarazevich, Andres Ayrton