Chandra Malai Kofta

Sunday, November 3

Chandra Malai Kofta

Rating: 4.75

Yes, another Isa Does It recipe… I know I know. I can’t stop myself. But really, all I can say is buy this book and make this recipe. I may or may not have squealed with delight when I found this one in the book. Years ago, there was an Indian restaurant in Charlotte I used to eat at all the time. I was vegetarian back then and they had a huge menu just for me. OK, not just for me, but it felt like it. One of my favorite things to get was the Malai Kofta Curry, a big bowl with little kabobs made from veggies and paneer floating in a creamy curry sauce (told you, it was pre-vegan). It was so good. I’ve never seen a vegan version before now. Now, this one will probably take a little more time to make than some of the other recipes, but it’s still not hard to do and is well worth it. First, I realized I’d forgotten to soak my cashews. I wasn’t too worried since the Vitamix doesn’t really always need them to be soaked to make a creamy sauce. I went ahead and put them in a bowl of hot water thinking they could at least soak a little bit while I made the koftas. I ran into a little trouble with my chickpeas because I don’t think I cooked them long enough, so they were a bit dry. If you use canned though, you won’t have this problem. Once the kofta mix is made, it needs about 30 minutes in the fridge. I made the sauce while the mix set up and then, because I was feeling ambitious, started to roll out the naan dough. (I've gushed rather a lot about how amazing the naan recipe in Vegan Eats World is.) This is when it got tricky and I had to call Seth for back up. There was no way I could form the koftas and get them frying while also rolling out and grilling the naan. So, we split up the duties and he made the koftas. I just rolled them around in the pan in between naan loaves. Once everything was done and plated, we sat down to a lovely Indian feast. It was delicious. And we were happy.