Paneer Thyme Bhurji | Indian Cottage Cheese Scramble

This Paneer Thyme Bhurji is a great way to enjoy a dinner recipe for breakfast. Made with Indian cottage cheese/paneer crumbles & thyme leaves, this flavorful scramble also known as bhurji tastes best with bread & can be enjoyed as a snack. Rich in protein, vegetarian & gluten-free!

People are breaking convention and putting a morning spin on their favorite meals. “Dinner for breakfast” saves are up 117% and that includes everything from Falafel Pizza to Ice Cream Smoothie. For me it’s just the idea of having my dinner for breakfast sounds exhilarating. This does not limit to eating leftovers from the previous night for breakfast, mind you! It simply means having a dinner like meal as breakfast. But to think of it, I am someone who enjoys her breakfast any time of the day. I can eat omelets, dosa, potato casseroles, waffles, idli, breakfast sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner and be completely fine with that. However, just the idea of creating a dinner type of recipe for breakfast gives me the kicks! 

The dish I have for breakfast today can fit in any category. Bhurji is a dish made with egg mostly. But vegetarians need not worry, paneer is a great substitute. But for those who are here for the first time and do not know what Paneer is or how to cook with it, here is what wiki has to say about it – Paneer (pronounced [pəniːr]) is a fresh cheese common in South Asia, especially in India. It is an unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice, vinegar, or any other food acids. If you are not too confident in making this at home, you can purchase it from any Indian grocery store. Even Lucky’s Market keeps it in the cheese section. Also, I like to add some greens to my bhurji every time I make it. This time, I had some fresh thyme which I wanted to pair with paneer and see how it tastes. 

In general, thyme is excellent at supporting the immune and respiratory systems as well as the digestive, nervous and other body systems. It’s a serious powerhouse when it comes to staying healthy. Given this, I wanted to experiment with its flavor in Indian cooking and therefore tried it in bhurji. I also used a different technique to prepare the recipe this time. Since its summer already, I wanted to give the bhurji a nice grill flavor and this is what I did. In a pan grill roughly chopped onions, tomatoes and garlic with oil and roasted cumin powder. Grill them till they get a nice charred look. Take it off the pan and allow it to cool. Then grind it to a smooth paste and keep it aside for now. 

Heat oil in a pan, temper mustard seeds and cumin seeds once the oil is hot. Add green chillies once they crackle and saute for 30 seconds. Next add the ground paste along with salt, turmeric powder, paprika and coriander cumin powder. Saute for 2-3 minutes and then add green peas to the pan. After cooking for another 1-2 minutes, add crumbled paneer to the mix and mix it all together so that the masala coats well. Lastly add chopped thyme leaves and lemon juice to the pan. Mix it well and take it off the flame. Paneer Thyme Bhurji or Indian Cottage Cheese Scramble is ready.  Serve it with any bread/roti. We eat it with bread all the time. You can even stuff it in between bread slices and enjoy it like a sandwich. Don’t forget to smear chutney on the bread before. It tastes yum!

Paneer Thyme Bhurji is such a versatile dish that the time to serve it is limitless. Pack it in lunchbox and enjoy a hearty meal at work/school while others around you may be settling for a salad, bhurji for breakfast is also a good idea and highly recommended or enjoy this simple dinner with some bread along with Netflix. You are so set! Paneer being super rich in protein, it’s a great meal choice for vegetarians like us but if you are a vegan then fret not. Just substitute it with tofu. In fact I also featured a guest post on that which you can read here – Spicy Mushroom & Spinach Tofu Scramble by Latisha from The Veganista Foodie. And yes, I will always suggest that you add any kind of greens to this dish just to make it more nutritious and tasty. Plus its a great way to include greens in your food especially for all the fussy eaters around you. 

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I hope I have convinced you enough on why dinner recipes can make ideal breakfast spread as well. If you are now looking for some more inspiration, then do check out these recipes – Bhelpuri, Paneer Veggie Pizza, Mushroom Jalapeno Burger Pizza, Cereal Caramel Milkshake, Dairy-Free Blueberry Pancake Smoothie, Chocolate Brownie Milkshake, Toasted Almond Coffee Bark, Tomato Thokku Stuffed Puff Pastry Pinwheels and Beet Leaves Sabudana Wada.