Vegetable kofta curry is a delicious creamy saucy recipe made up of kofta and creamy spicy curry where deep-fried dumplings of vegetables are cooked in a creamy, delicious gravy. Veg kofta is a party dish where the fried dumplings can be served as a starter with sauces, and the saucy creamy, slightly sugary version with simmered dumpling can be served as a main course dish.
Kofta is a culturally rich recipe that can be widely found in the Middle East, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey. In Turkey and India - vegetarian kofta options are available, made with bottle guard in India, and in Turkey, a vegan variety that replaces eggs for tahini is used. Both non-vegetarian and vegetarian varieties are cooked in tomato-based stew prepared with aromatic herbs, onion and ginger garlic paste.
Basic information
The delectable and savoury cuisine of India is truly in a world of its own, having manifested and evolved over thousands of years. It boasts dishes specific to each region and presents a complex network of preparation techniques, most explicitly, spices. The kebabs, pulao, biryanis, and kormas are some of the meat dishes that were made in the Mughal kitchen. Mughals came from northeastern regions into the Indian subcontinent and used locally grown herbs in different types of meats to get aromatic delicious curries.
Many Indians do not eat meat; hence, vegetable-based Kofta curry was made as an alternative version for meat kofta.
Most Indian restaurants serve the orange small dumpling called Kofta where the dumplings are glazed with creamy curry and the restaurant-based Veg Kofta Curry has a slightly sweet flavour. The creamy soup can be made with cardamom, garlic, cashew, saffron and other herbs. The dish is served with plain chapati or taftan roti that is prepared with flour, milk, yoghurt, a pinch of sugar, and eggs.
Kofta dumpling (without the gravy) makes a decent snack which does not require many ingredients to prepare. At home, it can be cooked with the available seasonal/fresh vegetables, where the fried dumplings are simmered in a creamy sauce made up of tomatoes, green chillies, coriander and ginger, tempered with turmeric and fenugreek. To get more flavours, one can warm up the spices with a tablespoon of olive oil, until it sizzles.
Veg Kofta Curry is a heavy main course tiffin dish and many like to eat kofta alone but it tastes best with roti or jeera rice, complemented with salads.