Vegan Malai Kofta

Malai Kofta is one of those indulgent North Indian Mughal dishes that always seems like it would take too long and be too complicated to cook at home. How wrong could I be!

The traditional version is vegetarian, with the kofta’s (rissoles) made from paneer and potato, cooked in a rich creamy tomato sauce (malai means cream), but this recipe is also very easy to make vegan without impacting the flavour at all. It is also much healthier without all the heavy cream fat in. This is a very rich and sweet, spicy dish, which has no green vegetables in it, so I usually serving it with plain green wilted vegetable (spinach or kale) to create some balance in the meal. As with any Indian dish, it can be served on its own or with bread or rice.

The kofta’s in this version are made from potato and tofu. Whilst the recipe calls for yukon potatoes, I have made it with sweet potatoes and it was just as good, if not better, as it is meant to be a sweet dish anyway. The other alteration I made was to use raisins instead of the green peas in the kofta, which makes it more like a traditional kofta. I have always fried the kofta’s rather than baking them.

The creamy sauce is made with cashews and tomato. Some recipes suggest you soak cashews before using them in these kinds of dishes. The advantage of this, is it does definitely make them softer and therefore they blend into the creamy sauce more easily, but if you don’t have time its not essential at all. The recipe also suggests fenugreek, if you don’t have it, its fine to leave it out.

How healthy is this recipe? It gets a tick for protein with the tofu and nut combination. But whilst, all of the ingredients are healthy, this is definitely missing the green, cruciferous vegetables that you need for a fully rounded meal. Nonetheless its so delicious it is well worth adding to your repertoire.

The best recipe I have found is this one from The Curious Chickpea. It’s really easy, and gets great results. Check it out, and let me know what you think of it.