Aayi’s Recipes Konkan/Konkani food blog, Indian culinary treasures

When I was doing my Bachelors in Belgaum, I tasted soya chunks for the first time. We used to get our lunch/dinner from a local “mess” (small restaurant). These soya chunks tasted like cotton and I hated it. But when I went to Bangalore, after my Bachelors, my brother always mentioned about soya chunks. He said it tasted like meat (chicken/mutton). From my previous experiences, I was not very comfortable trying it again.

When I started visiting food blogs, I saw many recipes with soya chunks, but still I ignored them. Few months back, Aruna sent me this recipe. So I thought it is finally the time to try it. Now I am very happy that I tried this amazing “Vegetarian meat”. As all of you know, soya is supposed to be very good for women(according to a TV channel). It is full of protiens.
The other good thing about this recipe is, it has “Kasoori methi”-dry fenugreek leaves. I am a fan of Methi-malai-matar (funugreek with cream and peas), my pachi made this often. But I never tried it. Now that I am comfortable using Kasoori methi, I can try Malai matar also.

Here is what Aruna has to say about this dish, “I have made this many times before, but have used cut onions and tomatoes or made a paste of ginger garlic onions and tomatoes, but somehow I liked the one I made today very much. The above gravy tastes like a restaurant gravy. Somebody had told me the secret of good restaurant food is, they blanch the onions and tomatoes and add cashewpaste or almond paste and use cream. So I tried this today”. Thanks Aruna.

Ingrediants:
Soya chunks 2 cups
Onion 1 big
Tomatoes 2
Ginger garlic paste 1/2 tea spn
Butter 1 tea spn
Kasoori methi 1 tbl spn
Turmeric a pinch
Red chili powder 1/2 tea spn
Garam masala 1/2 tea spn
Whipped cream 2 tea spn
Salt

I have reduced the amount of spices and ginger-garlic in this to suit my taste.
If more gravy is required, increase the amount of onion and tomatoes.
Instead of cream, I used 1/2 cup milk.

Method.
Wash and pressure cook the soya chunks (with water) for one whistle with little salt. Take out the soya chunks, leave it under cold water, wash again and squeeze the water out of them.
Heat 1 cup of water and add onion and cook for 5mins. Discard the water and make a paste of onion. Similarly, heat water and cook tomatoes. Discard water, peel the tomatoes and make a paste.
Heat butter in a pan and fry onion paste till golden brown for about 10 min. Then add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 2-3 min.
Add tomoto paste, mix well and fry for 5 min. Now add the masalas and cook/fry till the oil leaves the sides.
Add the soya to the gravy and add enough water to get a thick consistency. Add the kasoori methi and bring it to a boil.
Remove from heat and add the cream (I added 1/2 cup of milk instead of cream and boiled it till the gravy became thick).
Serve hot with phulkas or naan.

Serves : 2-3
Preparation time : 30mins

PS: I thought some of you might not know about soya chunks. So here is how they look like. They can be easily found in Indian stores. I have the “Bansi” brand “Soya vadi”(no idea why they are called “vadis”).