Vegetarian Kofta Curry

I haven't made the recipe yet, but there was no place to compliment Tejal Rao on her beautiful remembrance of her grandfather, a man who took his time to do every little task with love and care. It made me tear up, it was so lovely. I'll make this recipe, but first I had to say thank you.

I believe you can use ground flaxseed meal w/a bit of water for the egg replacement in this recipe. It’s stated on the Bob’s Red Mill pkg, bottom right.

If I used one bunch of cilantro and mint from my vegetable store I'd end up with probably 2 cups cilantro and 4 cups mint... I assume this is not what is intended here. Better give a rough measure.

We found this awful. It doesn't taste "Indian" at all, and we followed the recipe to the letter. Needs way more marsala, cumin and coriander potentially, but it tasted like pasta sauce with black bean meatballs. It was far simpler than most indian recipes I've tied, which may have been part of the problem. I don't have much advice except to say there are WAY better kofta recipes out there. Don't use this one. It's so americanized it hurts.

Please share your grandfather's recipe! He sounds like a gem.

This was a hit. I didn’t have bread crumbs so I crumbled oats. I didn’t want to buy mint so I used Thai basil from my garden. Tripled the garam masala because garam masala. I didn’t think they’d hold together in the oven because the beans were hard to smash but they worked. Served over brown rice, plopped some yogurt and garden cuke on top. Coulda used another jalapeño.

I followed the recipe exactly (it looked AMAZING), and the kofta is perfect. The sauce was so flavorful, the kofta balls were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I used about 1/2 cup each of cilantro and mint. Perfect. I am a vegetarian, I have just given up on things (like meatballs), but now I can put them back into my rotation. Thank you!

Yes, to make this kofta recipe vegan, you can use flax meal or chia seeds soaked for several minutes in water to replace the egg -- 1 tablespoon seed to 3 tablespoons water. Other egg replacer powders that contain arrowroot and potato starch, etc., can sometimes create a gum-like texture. I love kofta and can't wait to make this!

this was fragrant! would’ve liked more of a bite to the kofta but still very very delicious. perhaps some ground nuts next time. my garam masala needed extra cardamom, and i added a tablespoon of tomato paste. definitely a vegetarian dish to impress guests with.

Very tasty! The prep time is a little misleading. Allow at least 90 minutes to prepare this dish from the time you start prepping until it is ready to be served. We made raita (yogurt, cucumber, herbs, spices) to accompany it and would highly recommend serving it on the side, along with basmati rice. Make sure the bean balls have a nice crust on the outside - having the crunchy contrasting texture is great.

I used ~ 1 generous cup of cilantro leaves (pre-chopped) purchased, and ~ 1/3 whole mint leaves (pre-chopped) from the garden. I removed the long stems from the cilantro "bouquet" and chopped up the smaller stems along with the leaves. But I'd like to try a bit more of each next time.

A wonderful story about your grandfather. Reminded me of mine and the Finnan Haddie he would make that only the two of us would eat. Thanks.

You can also use chickpea flour (besan).

There is no such thing as too much cilantro in Indian food, in my opinion. I think you'd be perfectly fine using anything from a sprig to a bunch (a tbsp to 2 cups) in the recipe. Mint, being a stronger flavor, I'd say a half cup to a cup for this quantity. I'm assuming the cups you're talking about here is not chopped herbs but whole sprigs?

Tasty, but the cooking techniques suggested could have been improved. Using the food processor to make the paste just shot the ingredients up the side of the bowl and they never mixed. (I used the small bowl.) Immersion blender didn't work, either. I ended up using a knife. Also, the sauce takes longer to cook than the meatballs, so it would make more sense to start that first. I used parsley because I have the 'cilantro tastes like soap' gene.