Soya Chana Kofta Curry

This is one of my favorite soya chunk preparations of all time. Both soya and chana are full of nutrition and when these ingredients combine into a curry, it becomes a powerhouse of nourishment and wholesome goodness. Please don't assume that chana is a lentil product. I know chickpeas are popularly called 'chana', but this 'Chana' in Bengali refers to the fat extracted out of curdled milk. All you need to do to produce chana is to curdle the milk and separate the whey water. With the help of a muslin cloth or strainer, then the milk fat or the chana needs to be completely drained of water. You may let the chana dry for one or two hours in open air before proceeding with making the koftas. The moisture or the water content in chana will then completely evaporate, making it easy to work with. 

If you like this recipe, please check out other soya chunk recipes in my blog:

Baingan with Soya Nuggets

Soya Malwani 

Baingan with Soya Nuggets

One of my friends recently told me to upload more Soya recipes. In fact, I myself was thinking to go innovative with soya chunks as soya beans and soya nuggets are extremely good for health. Usually, while cooking mixed vegetables, I never forget to add a handful of soya nuggets, but sometimes your palate desires for a change. As I went about scouring the cyber world in search of some good ingenious soya recipes, I came across this exotic post made by Sanjeev Kapoor. It's the same old Baingan Bharta with a twist.

If you have liked my SoyaChunks Mixed Veg Curry and Soya Malwani, you will definitely love this one too.

Soya Chunks Mixed Veg Curry

Soya chunks are good substitutes for protein derived from animal meat. So veggies can compensate their protein deficiency by eating more pulses, soya beans and soya nuggets. I particularly love soya chunks because of the meaty taste. If cooked properly, it tastes really mouth-watering.

My mother at home makes an awesome soya curry which tastes even better than chicken curry, but no matter how many times I try emulating it, it always lacks the zing in taste. Perhaps it would take one or two decade more for me to come close to my mother's culinary skill. Interestingly, though my mother is a very good cook, she does not have the patience to teach one how to cook. Hence, both me and my elder sister have learned cooking on our own through trial and tests. Curiously enough, my mother for past 5-6 years has kept an amateur cook who at the time of her recruitment could not concoct a simple egg curry decently. I owe large part of my weight gain to that new hire's obsession of cooking with excess oil. I recall the shock on one of my colleagues' face when during recess I offered her a luchi with oil dripping from it. All my complaints and my mother's ensuing reaction fell on deaf ears. Our new hire hardly used to take anything into her ears and kept on doing things her way. She believed that cooking with excessive oil and spices add to the taste. It took quite a few years for my mother to make her understand the basics of cooking and now thankfully, she conjures up fine cuisines, at least taste wise.

Okay, no more diversion from the main topic….here goes the recipe for you. It’s yummy and healthy. Enjoy !

Soya Malwani

This exotic Konkani recipe of Soya Malwani was shared by Indrani Mukherjee in Sananda. I cooked it for the first time tonight with little trepidation in mind as to the taste of this South Indian recipe would suit my Bengali tastebud or not. But it turned out really mouthwatering and can easily be eaten with rice or roti. Below goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

250 gm soya mini chunks

2 medium sized onions (one chopped and another turned into paste)

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

3 tbs tomato sauce or puree

2 cups of whipped yogurt

1 cup of coconut milk (I used canned coconut milk easily available in the market)

2 tbs of fresh cream

1 tsp of sambar masala

1 tsp red chilli powder

2 tsp turmeric powder

5-6 green chillies (chopped)

salt to taste

sugar as per taste

White oil for cooking

For phoron (sauting)

10-12 curry leaves

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

Method:

1) Soak the soya chunks in a mixture made from whipped yogurt, tomato sauce, salt, 1 tsp turmeric powder & 1/2 tsp red chilli powder. Keep it aside for 1 1/2 hours.

2) Heat oil in a frying pan. Add the ingredients for sauting and saute till they begin to splutter.

3) Now add chopped onion and onion paste and roast them till they become translucent. Add ginger and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.

4) Add salt, 1 tsp of turmeric powder, red chilli powder, green chillies, sugar and sambar powder. Saute. Add 1/2 cup of water.

5) Throw in the soya chunks along with the mixture.

6) When oil separates, add coconut milk and fresh cream one by one. Add water if gravy becomes too dry.

7) Cook covered on medium heat till soya chunks become tender.

8) Sprinkle chopped chillies over the dish before serving.