Saturday 4 September 2010

Low Fat Soya Bean Kofta Curry


Low Fat Soya Bean Kofta Curry


As always I have been trying to include lots of healthy ingredients to our meal. Recently I have been trying some experiments with soya bean. There is always minced soya or chunks but nothing can replace unprocessed bean itself. Well, atleast that was my logic. Few of the experiments suggested it was easier to turn the soya chunks to delicious recipes but that was until I made this kofta. There are so many recipes waiting to be written up but I decided to post this one today itself after enjoying the fruits, actually koftas, of my successful experiment. Low fat kofta was one of the dishes I made and posted a photograph of on my fb page. I got lots of encouragement from then and now I have a blog to ramble about my experiments. This is the first time I tried soya bean kofta though. As you may know, soya is suppose to be a great source of protein and like most vegetable protein, it has little to no fat. Please note that I made only about 8 koftas as I was only experimenting. The measurements specified will yield the same. Here is how I made it...

For the kofta

¼ cup soyabean, soaked for 8-10hours or overnight
1 green chilly
1 small red pepper finely chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 boiled potato
1 teaspoon each - cumin powder, coriander powder
½ teaspoon chilly powder
Handful of coriander leaves
1 tablespoon Breadcrumbs or besan or soya flour
Salt to taste

For the sauce (gravy)
1 big onion, chopped
3-4 tomatoes, pureed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon each – cumin powder, coriander powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder
2 green chillies
A pinch of kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) or any other herb of your choice
Salt to taste
Cooking oil
For the Kofta:
Cook the beans, preferably pressure cook else as per pack instructions.

In a saucepan/skillet, heat little oil and sauté onions and red pepper.


In the food processor, combine cooked beans, potato, coriander leaves, chilly, chilly powder, cumin and coriander powders and salt. Make a coarse paste without too much water. You should be able to make balls of this mixture in your hand. Add breadcrumbs or besan or soya flour to achieve this consistency.


Make balls of the mixture and roll them over the breadcrumbs/besan/soya flour. Fry them with less than a teaspoon oil in the ‘kuzhipaniyaram’ dish. Turn the balls so they get evenly cooked to until brown. Keep aside once done.






For the sauce/gravy:

Fry the onions and chilly and once cooled down, grind to a paste. Bring it back to the saucepan and add little water and allow to boil.


Now add the tomato puree.

Add the spice powders, salt and dried fenugreek leaves.


Before serving, put the koftas in the sauce and for garnish, add some yogurt or just coriander leaves.



Great with rice or any bread.

I am sure you could bake the koftas for about 10-15 minutes at 200degC. Have not tried it myself yet but will give it a shot sometime. As all kofta ingredients are pre-cooked, it shouldn’t be long in the oven.

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