malai kofta

Indian Night

An awesome Indian dish is Malai Kofta. Kofta means "balls" (as in meatballs) and Malai means "cream." Neither of these would lend themselves to veganism and I haven't found a vegan version anywhere.

The kofta can be made with meat or vegetables or beans or cheese. The kofta in Malai Kofta uses paneer, a homemade cheese.

So, let's veganize it!

The sauce is a tomato based gravy with a little cream and some spices, but nothing all that complicated.  In  order to achieve the creaminess that cream brings to the Malai party, I used cashew cream and cashew butter and a few Tablespoons of Earth Balance to up the richness of the sauce.

I made the koftas using chickpeas and fresh herbs. I pan fried them a little and then finished them in the oven.

Although this meal was very successful in terms of flavor, it does not have quite the flavor that cream lends to the original. While there are some dishes that I truly try to achieve authenticity with, this particular one tasted so good that I am not bummed by not hitting the target exactly. It most certainly resembles Malai Kofta, but since I am not using dairy cream, the taste is slightly different. So, if you are not expecting exact replication, this is a total knockout.

For the greens I made the Spinach and Kale Bhaji out of Flavors of India.

Cost Breakdown

cashew: $2

tomato: $3

spices: $1

chickpeas: $2 

herbs: $2

kale, spinach: $4

garlic, onion: $1

Total to feed a family of 6:

$15.00

chinese crispy vegan pork

Asian Night

Tonight I made a meal based on a recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's Authentic Chinese Cuisine cookbook.

I am a huge fan of Bryanna and her website, Vegan Kitchen Feast, and I love this book. I read a few of the reviews on Amazon about this book and I even made a recipe from it that was being critiqued by a customer and I did not have the same experience that she did.

Which brought to mind the importance of seasoning food.

Many folks who are just starting out on the 'health' road via vegetarianism also cut out salt - something that they had not done before. This does not only make food bland, but it makes vegetarian food bland - and then it is vegetarianism that gets the ax, not the true culprit - salt.

If you are just beginning to be veg, it is important that you not sabotage your new diet by not making it taste as good as it can.

If you are fresh off the processed-foods-wagon, just eating freshly made food will automatically lower your sodium drastically without the need to eliminate all salt. Then in time, when  your palate adjusts to the new menu as well as the lower sodium in your new food, you can continue to rid yourself of even table/cooking salt.

So, please season your food. You are already doing well by cooking your own whole food, so don't undermine your chances of success.

Tonight's meal used TVP chickn cutlets. In order to rehydrate your TVP properly, it must be soaked in boiling liquid for two hours. Once the liquid boils you do not have to keep cooking it, but you do have to soak it for a long time otherwise it will be tough in spots.

I have made a How-To Breakdown for this and it will be up this weekend.

Everyone loved it, with the obvious "I don't like peas," " Ginger is too spicy!" etc.

Cost Breakdown:

TVP: $6

onion, garlic, ginger: $1

pepper, peas: $2

tomato paste, tamari: $.50

rice: $1

Total to feed a family of 5:

$10.50

4.5 out of 5 stars

How-To Breakdown