kofta

Get benefit of Indian spices and vegetables by preparing vegetable kofta. This is another way to include vegetables in your diet. This recipe calls for fresh cream and one can use light cream instead of heavy cream to reduce calorie in the dish. Compared to malai kofta , vegetable kofta serves less calorie (approximately 230 per serving).  Vegetable kofta is a good lunch or dinner item and tastes delicious with Indian breads or with veg fried rice, pulav or with cumin rice.

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes – 6
2. Carrots – 3 cups (sliced)
3. Onions – 3 (chopped)
4. Garlic – 1 or 2 cloves (crushed)
5. Ginger – 1 inch (chopped/grated)
6. Turmeric powder, coriander powder, cinnamon powder – 1 tsp, chilli powder – 1 tsp each
7. Cinnamon stick – ½ inch
8. Tomato – 2 (prepare puree)
9. Green chilli – 1 or 2 finely chopped
10. Bread crumbs – ½ cup
11. Salt – as per taste
12. Gharam masala powder – 1.5 tsp
13. Fresh cream -1/4 cup (use light cream)
14. Oil – For frying
15. Cilantro – chopped ½ cup for garnishing

Preparation:

1.  Heat oil on medium heat, add cinnamon stick and cumin seeds and sauté to till they release fragrance. Add turmeric powder, cinnamon powder, cumin powder, garlic, ginger and garam masala powder. Sauté for another few seconds and mix well.
2.  Prepare koftas by mixing boiled potatoes, carrots, little chopped onions, breadcrumbs, green chillis and red chilli powder with salt. Mix well and prepare small balls and keep aside.
3.  Heat oil in a deep-frying pan or kadai. Now release kofta balls in the heated oil and deep fry to get crisp golden color balls. Transfer vegetable kofta to paper towel to remove excess oil.
4.  In a frying vessel, heat a tsp of butter, add tomato puree, rest of the chopped onion and cook for few minutes. Now add masala from step 1 to tomato puree and continue mixing. After a minute or so, add fresh cream and mix well. Let the gravy cook, boil and simmer for few more minutes.
5.  Transfer koftas to serving dish and pour gravy slowly on koftas. Mix gravy and kofta slowly once. Garnish with chopped coriander.
6.  Serve hot kofta with chappati, puri or rotis. It goes well with cumin rice too!