These vegetarian fusion paneer wraps are bursting with amazing flavor while being very easy to make for lunch or dinner! The lightly fried Indian paneer cheese is combined with creamy avocado and crunchy mixed salad, then drizzled with a smoky and sweet harissa honey sauce. You have plenty of options to mix up the ingredients to make these work for you!
We love our paneer cheese around here, and we love fusion recipes, so these wraps are a new firm favorite for an easy dinner or a scrappy work from home lunch. The combination of Indian and North African flavors, the creaminess of the avocado and paneer, the crunch of the salad fillings… it’s a lot! In a good way.
The recipe is for one wrap, but you can easily scale it up for however many people you have to feed. Make this into a delicious family feast, with all of the fillings in the middle so that everyone can create their own wraps with the ingredients they want to use. Some suggested side dishes would be Warm Butter Bean Salad, Green Olive Grain Salad or Manchego Truffle Fries.
Ingredients and fillings for the best ever paneer wraps
While this is a flexible recipe that you can bend to your will, this is, for me, the perfect line up:
- Paneer Cheese: This Indian cheese is firm, doesn’t melt and has a lovely mild milky taste to it. I love the stuff! It may be tricky to track down depending on where you are in the world. Larger supermarkets will often carry it, but otherwise you can track it down at an Indian market if there’s one near you. You can swap in halloumi – it will be different, but still delicious.
- Garam masala: We toss the paneer in this delicious spice mix before frying for a subtle but irresistible flavor. You can use a curry blend if you’d prefer.
- Avocado: A really important addition to these wraps, adding lots of creaminess and moisture.
- Spinach: I prefer spinach or chard leaves rather than lettuce leaves in this, but lettuce is a perfectly good option if that’s what you have!
- Baby tomatoes: Cherry, baby plum (grape) or baby heirlooms all work well here, the fresher and sweeter the better!
- Red onion slices: You could also use some chopped green onion if you prefer.
- Chili: if you want your wrap spicy, add lots of sliced chili for a kick. For me, a few slices of a mild red chili did the job.
- Pomegranate seeds: These are optional, I know not everyone will have them lying around or want to buy them especially, but they add a lovely sweetness and juiciness to these wraps.
- Cilantro (coriander) leaves: I love to have just a few cilantro leaves in there for flavor, though this is optional or could be replaced with parsley.
- Wraps: I use plain flour tortilla wraps, but you can use a paratha for a more legit Indian kathi wrap. You can even stuff it all in a pita pocket or use it as a flatbread topping if you prefer.
For the honey harissa sauce:
- Plain mayo: is the creamy base.
- Harissa: provides the smoky, spicy kick.
- Honey: sweetens it all up. You could swap maple syrup if you prefer, but I definitely like the honey in this.
Other Sauce Options
If you don’t have any harissa paste, there are other ways to make a great sauce for these wraps. Consider one of these recipes instead:
- Sweet Chili Mayo: 2 Tbsp mayo + 1 tsp of sweet chili sauce (no honey needed – this is already very sweet!)
- Chipotle Mayo: 2 Tbsp mayo + chipotle sauce to taste (some chipotle sauces are much hotter than others, so you’ll need to use your judgement when mixing this up)
If you want to increase the heat in your mayo, mix in a little hot sauce, hot chili paste or hot chili powder.
More Unique Paneer Recipe Ideas
Paneer Wraps with Spiced Honey Mayo
Ingredients
- 50 g (1.75 oz) paneer, sliced into strips (this is usually 1/4 of a block)
- 1-2 tsp garam masala
- ¼ large avocado, sliced
- 1 tortilla wrap
- 1 handful baby spinach, lettuce or chard
- 2 baby tomatoes, sliced
- 1 tbsp pomegranate seeds
- sliced red onion, to taste
- sliced chili, to taste
Harissa Honey Mayo
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tsp harissa paste
- 2 tsp honey
Instructions
- Make the sauce by whisking together all of the ingredients.2 tsp harissa paste, 2 tsp honey, 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- Smear a little sauce over a tortilla.1 tortilla wrap
- Prepare your paneer. Sprinkle a light coating of garam masala over all of the pieces of paneer. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a frying pan, and then fry the pieces on medium-high heat until golden on each side. Be careful while frying – paneer has a habit of making oil spit out of the pan so try to stand back as much as possible. Once they are ready, remove from the pan and place on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.50 g paneer, 1-2 tsp garam masala
- Pile your cold ingredients onto the wrap, and then finally add the paneer slices on top.1/4 large avocado, 1 handful baby spinach, lettuce or chard, 2 baby tomatoes, sliced red onion, sliced chili, 1 tbsp pomegranate seeds
- Drizzle with the remaining sauce (or as much of it as you like, you may not use it all).
- Roll up your wrap and serve immediately.
