VEGAN MALAI KOFTA | must-try Indian recipe

Today I'm showing how to make restaurant style vegan malai kofta. This is truly one of the most delicious Indian recipes you will ever try and I'm so excited to show you how to veganize it. We're gonna get started with the gravy because you can make this part ahead of time. To start this gravy I've got some whole spices, cinnamon sticks, as well as cardamom, cloves, and cumin seeds. And I'm going to start by grinding up the cinnamon sticks in a mortar and pestle. If you don't have one, an electric spice grinder, mini food chopper, coffee grinder, even the back of a saute pan will work. And you don't need to grind them completely, just a little bit which will help them start releasing their oils. And by the way malai kofta are basically fried dumplings that are typically made with paneer, which is an Indian cheese, and potatoes and maybe a couple other ingredients. And they're served swimming in this really aromatic creamy gravy sauce that's golden in color. It usually has cream in it and it's a very rich traditional dish from the north of India. So it's not something I grew up eating because my family's from the western region, but it is a special occasion dish that we would have at weddings and Diwali parties and birthdays and restaurant lunches. So I'm going to show you how to fully veganize malai kofta. After the whole spices come the aromatics, specifically onions, green chili, garlic, and ginger. So some Indian recipes don't include green chilies, but that's kind of the formula I learned from my mom, these four aromatics. If you're really sensitive to spicy food you can omit the green chilies and just use garlic, ginger, and onions. After the aromatics come the ground spices and each spice plays a different role in Indian cooking. So they're a bit more subtle in flavor than say whole spices, but they still play an essential role. So the formula is whole spices, then aromatics, then ground spices, and then you can add the rest of your ingredients. So for this gravy it's tomatoes, cashews, and salt. So I've got three really large tomatoes here and I'm just going to roughly chop them up. Be sure to include the tomato juices because it's going to be the liquid that helps bring the gravy together on the stove. Then heat up a skillet with some oil and add the whole spices. They really only need about 45 to 60 seconds to start toasting, get really fragrant, and that's then releasing their essential oils, which is going to release all that delicious flavor into the curry. Now it's time to add the onions. This is the first part of the aromatics and you want to saute the onions for about 45 minutes or until they're starting to soften and get some color on them. And what we're doing here is just building layers of flavor and that is one of the keys to a successful and delicious Indian dish. Lots of flavor at different levels. Now I'm adding the ground spices. I've got red Indian chili powder, turmeric, and coriander. If you like it very spicy you can go ahead and use more red Indian chili powder. Stir the ground spices into the aromatics for about 30 seconds until very fragrant, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Once the ground spices are incorporated we'll add the tomatoes with their juices. And the tomatoes need about two to three minutes until they start to get soft and break down. All right now it's time to add our cashews. These have been soaked in boiling water just for 15 minutes to help soften them up. You can do that while you're prepping all the other ingredients and some kosher salt or sea salt if you have that. And then we'll go ahead and cover the pan, lower the heat a bit. We're gonna let the gravy simmer for about 15 minutes to soften everything and let the flavors melt together. Stir it occasionally and then cover it again. Now it's time to blend up the gravy. So I've got some creamy plant-based milk here. It's coconut milk from a carton. You can use really any kind of neutral flavored unsweetened plant milk you like. And then we're going to add the gravy directly to the blender. And finally we'll add some lemon juice. The acidity and lemon juice is really going to help balance the spiciness of all those spices. And then you'll return the blended sauce to the saucepan. And depending on when you're serving this just heat it back up. And one of the ways we're going to add restaurant quality flavor to this dish is by finishing it with some kasuri methi or fenugreek leaves. You can find them at Indian grocery stores or Amazon and it adds a really distinctive taste like a cross between fennel and celery and enhances the overall flavor. Just crush it up and add it to the gravy along with some garam masala for extra flavor. And you can do this when you're heating the sauce before serving. Now it's time to get started on our kofta which are the fried dumplings. So traditionally as I mentioned they're made with potatoes and paneer which is an Indian cheese. I've got some boiled yukon gold potatoes that I'm going to grate using a box grater. If you don't have a grater you could crumble this by hand. You want to make sure that you don't overcook your potatoes. You don't want them to be super soft like you would for mashed potatoes just until the point that they're done. You want to make sure you also dry them out. So once they're done cooking drain the potatoes in a colander and let them dry out for at least 10 to 15 minutes while you prep the other ingredients and that'll ensure your potatoes aren't watery. Another ingredient I'm adding to the kofta dough are cashews. Again to add richness to this but also we're going to blend them up in a food processor and that's going to kind of turn into a powder that will help everything stick together. As I mentioned traditionally malai kofta is made with paneer which is a fresh Indian cheese so it's not vegan but I'm going to use tofu instead. But paneer is really thick and chewy so that's why I'm using super protein... no super firm also known as high protein tofu. You can find this in certain grocery stores but if you can't you can use extra firm tofu but I really like using this because it is so thick and basically all the water has been pressed out so it's very similar to paneer in texture. And I'm just going to crumble this in here and then you'll pulse the tofu several times in a food processor until you have really small pieces almost similar to a crumbled cheese. We have all of our ingredients prepped for the kofta so now it's time to shape them into little balls... that's what they're called. So we've got our crumbled tofu, also got our grated potatoes, and the full recipe for all the measurements including both measurements in cups and ounces as well as in grams can be found on the blog. Then we've got the cashew flour and the rest of the ingredients we have are corn starch you could use tapioca starch or arrowroot and that's going to help everything stick together. And the final ingredients to season we've got some garam masala and red chili powder. Red chili powder is not the same as regular chili powder that you'd buy at a regular grocery store, it's very different it's just made from red chilies. You can find it in Indian grocery stores as well as online, places like Amazon, but if you don't want to buy it then just go ahead and omit it and use a little bit of cayenne pepper instead. We've also got some freshly chopped cilantro, some finely minced fresh ginger, and last ingredient some salt to season. And now we're going to knead the dough just kind of like how you would knead any dough but it shouldn't take that long and just going to get your hands messy. Use your hands to gently knead the ingredients into a soft dough that holds together when you roll it with your hands. I find it useful to oil my hands just a little bit while I roll the balls because it just makes it smoother and easier to shape them. Gently roll the dough with your hands into uniform sized balls and try to get them as round as you can. Continue rolling the rest of the dough until you run out of it and oil your hands along the way as needed. So I've got 18 balls or kofta here. My balls weigh between... that sounds ridiculous. My kofta weigh each between 40 and 50 grams and I have a little bit of extra dough which I'll use as a tester. I'll show you what I mean. All right now it's time to deep fry the kofta. I've got some sunflower oil heating up here. If you don't have that you can use any kind of vegetable oil and the first thing you want to do is make sure it's hot enough. So it's on medium heat and I want it to read about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe a little bit lower. If you don't have a thermometer to check if the oil is hot enough, add a tiny piece of the kofta dough and if it immediately sizzles and bubbles up and then floats to the surface within a few seconds, the oil is at the right temperature. And now you just need to take your spider, add one of the balls in there and gently slide it into the pan. Use the spider to slide in the kofta one at a time and be sure to not overcrowd the pan. I fry four at a time in this medium-sized saucepan. Occasionally stir them around to prevent them from sticking and ensure even cooking and fry until they're deeply golden brown. Mine usually take about five to seven minutes. Then transfer them to some paper towels to remove the excess oil. Deep frying will yield the most authentic and delicious taste for malai kofta but if you're opposed to deep frying you can bake them. Just brush them lightly with some oil and then bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes or until browned on both sides and a bit crispy. When you're ready to serve, heat the gravy back up and serve the kofta swimming in the gravy and kofta sauce all over. If you're not going to serve them all at once, store the kofta separately from the gravy to prevent them from getting soggy. Finish the dish with some chopped fresh cilantro and spoon the gravy over the kofta. You can serve with any kind of Indian flatbread or pita bread or if you're gluten-free with white rice. Now it's my favorite part of the video, the taste test. I'm so excited for this because it smells so good. This is unbelievably good. It's hard to describe but it's crunchy on the outside from being fried but pillowy and soft on the inside. The sauce is really creamy, aromatic, perfectly spiced. You guys are going to absolutely love this vegan malai kofta and if you're in the mood for even more Indian food right now, stay tuned because coming up is my easy instant pot chana masala.