A Better Indian Paneer: Sach Foods
Tarush and Jasleen Agarwal photo credit: Tanarak Photography.
Paneer is an unsung hero of the cheese world. This fresh, acid-set Indian cheese doesn’t melt and is typically made from buffalo milk or a mix of buffalo and cow’s milk in India, and cow’s milk in the United States. It’s most well known as the protein in saag paneer (a dish you’ll find on almost every Indian restaurant menu), made of creamy spiced greens (often spinach) cooked with fried cubes of paneer, and is often the extent of most people’s paneer knowledge. But one Oakland-based paneer company is trying to change that. Sach Foods makes organic, small-batch paneer from grass-fed milk, a rarity in a market that’s dominated by mass-produced, flavorless paneer. Founders Tarush and Jasleen Agarwal are on a mission to show the world just how versatile paneer can be. Almond-crusted habanero paneer fries, anyone?
Sach Foods Paneer photo credit: Sasha Lopyrev
Sach Foods Spicy Habanero Paneer
The Agarwals are vegetarians, and paneer is a high protein food they’ve enjoyed since childhood. Jasleen grew up in New Delhi in North India, and loved her mother’s tomato curry with paneer. It was also an after workout snack, sprinkled with salt and pepper. Jasleen explains, “Back then in India, we didn’t have protein bars, so it was a good snack that keeps you full.” Tarush grew up in Jamshedpur in Eastern India and remembers eating paneer tikka as a delicacy, which is paneer marinated in a spiced yogurt and grilled on skewers until crisp on the outside and creamy within. The couple met and married in San Francisco, but struggled finding high protein vegetarian foods, and the mass-produced paneer was so bad, they stopped eating it. Amod Chopra, owner of Vik’s Chaat and Market in Berkeley, California, remembers that when his father opened Vik’s in 1987, paneer was just starting to be sold in the US. He says it hasn’t changed much over the years. “Paneer here has thickening agents and tastes significantly different from Indian paneer,” Chopra explains.
Jasleen started making her own paneer at home using minimal, high quality ingredients, and Sach Foods was born in October 2018. As of June 2020, they are sold in 120 stores throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles, used by several restaurants and can also be ordered online and shipped through the US. In India, paneer has no flavor, not even salt, because it’s meant to be seasoned by whatever sauce it cooks in. Jasleen wanted to encourage people to eat paneer on it’s own, so their paneer is salted, and they are the first company to sell flavored paneer. They’ve experimented with several different flavors, like mint chutney and Thai curry, but they currently sell Original (plain), Turmeric Twist and Spicy Habanero. They prefer to only use fresh ingredients for their flavors. “Whatever ingredients we’re adding to the paneer have their own health benefits,” Jasleen says.
Sach Foods isn’t just innovating with their small-batch and flavored paneer, they’re also encouraging people to get creative with how they eat paneer. Yes, you could make a killer saag paneer with their product, but the Agarwals think it’s just as good on a cheese board, fried like tempura and served with soba noodles, or tossed into beet salad with mint and lemon juice.
It wasn’t easy to launch a self-funded food company with no previous experience, but the Agarwals are thankful for collaborations with two modern Indian chefs in the Bay Area that have helped get their product in front of more people. Chef Pujan Sarkar of Rooh in San Francisco and chef Manish Tyagi at August 1 Five in San Francisco have both featured Sach Foods paneer on their menus. “We are all first generation immigrants who’ve received help from someone,” Tarush says. “Plus we are all bringing our culture to consumers in new innovative ways.” It’s the immigrant paneer company that could, thanks in part to other immigrant food businesses.
Find Sach Foods paneer at https://sachfoods.com/ and on Instagram @sachfoods