If you are trying to eat less meat, or have recently switched to a vegetarian or vegan diet you might miss the richness of meat dishes. This recipe brings in a lot of the rich notes that you would find from other North Indian dishes.
This dish is also great if you are on a low carb or ketogenic diet and combine it with my Indian style cauliflower rice recipe. The soy chunks, or plant based protein chunks I used are gluten free, have 14g of protein, 9 total grams of carbohydrate but 5g are from dietary fiber with no added sugar.
There are a couple of really important things to make this recipe delicious. One is that you want to flavor and color the soy chucks. The soy chucks are rehydrated in boiling water with a teabag for color. I also added some balsamic vinegar fo added color and flavor. For the last kick of flavor in the soy chucks squirt some gluten free tamari over them before adding them to the sauce.
The sauce is similar to many other Indian dishes featuring onion, garlic, ginger and tomato. It also adds in some spinach just to sneak some delicious greens into the dish.
North Indian food is often associated with being cooked over an open flame or in a wood burning fire. To add some of this smokey flavor this dish uses black cardamom which is processed by being smoked and it really makes this dish feel like it was cooked on a wood stove or in a wood burning oven.
If you’re ready for something rich delicious and vegan let’s jump in!
Amritsari Nutri a rich vegan meat like curry.
Course: MainCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Medium6
servings30
minutes40
minutesRich and delicious meatless curry.
Ingredients
2 Cups of Plant Protein Chunks
1 Tea bag of black tea
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 small tomatoes diced
1 jalapeño pepper diced
2 medium sized onions diced
5 cloves of garlic minced
1 1/2 tablespoon ginger paste
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup frozen spinach
1 tablespoon ghee for vegan version use avocado or virgin coconut oil
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
3 cloves
1 teaspoon of broken up cinnamon pieces
1 black cardamom
2 green cardamom
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons coriander
1/3 of a teaspoon of cumin
2 – 3 teaspoons of Kashmiri Chili Powder
1 teaspoon kasuri methi
1 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Directions
- Put about 6 cups of water in a pot and bring it to a boil.
- Add in 1 tea bag, the balsamic vinegar and the Plant based protein chunks let simmer for 7-10 minutes
- Prep and dice your vegetables
- Remove the soy chunks from the water and let them cool in a bowl.
- In a pot add in your ghee or oil. Add the cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves, black cardamom and green cardamom. Fry for a 30 seconds or so to flavor the ghee or oil.
- Add in the onions, and jalapeno pepper and cook till the onions start to become translucent, about 2 – 3 minutes.
- Add in the Ginger, garlic and fry for one more minute.
- Add in the tomato and cook for one more minute.
- Add in the turmeric, coriander, cumin and kasmiri chili powder stir and cook for one more minute.
- Add the tomato sauce.
- Turn down the heat and let the flavors blend while you drain the water from the protein chunks
- Once the protein chunks have cooled enough to handle squeeze them out with your hand.
- Add the tamari sauce to the soy chucks and stir. Set aside.
- Add 2 cups of water and the spinach to the pot with the sauce stir and let simmer for 3 – 5 minutes.
- Take the sauce off the heat and let cool enough to safely put into a blender and blend.
- Blend until the sauce is smooth.
- Add the sauce back to the pot. Add the vegetable protein chunks stir and cook for another 5 – 7 minutes.
- Finish with salt to taste. I used about a teaspoon and a half. Kasuri methi broken up by hand and garam masala. Stir add more water if the sauce has become to thick.
