This is a low fat recipe for one of the most favorite foods from Indian cuisine. We are using lot less cream, butter, oil to make this recipe of malai kofta. Hence this is a healthy malai kofta recipe that you can enjoy on weekends or special occasion and festivals.
Malai Kofta is a rich, delicious and comforting food from north India. Malai kofta is made of two words Malai and kofta. Malai means the cream of milk and Kofta means a food ball. Kofta (plural koftas) is any of various spicy meatball or meatloaf dishes of the Middle East, Caucasus, South Asia, and the Balkans as per wiki. In the case of vegetarian foods it means a vegetarian fried ball.
Mostly Malai kofta is consumed at restaurants mostly and not cooked at home. The reason behind this perception that it’s very tough to make Malai kofta at home. Our attempt is to make this recipe simple and easy so that you can cook it any day at home in a very short amount of time.
Their many type of koftas like lauki (bottle guard)kofta, paneer kofta, mixed vegetable kofta etc. In this recipe we’re going to use potato and Paneer to make these koftas. You can make koftas in many shape, I am just going to go with traditional ball shape.
About Malai Kofta
Malai Kofta is part of the gourmet Indian food, which is normally served mostly in restaurants with butter Naan or Basmati rice. Yes, it can be served with plain simple rice but cumin rice, ghee rice and cilantro rice are preferred. You can also pair this food with dal like dal makhani.
What is Malai kofta
Malai kofta is is a vegetarian dish in which vegetarian meat balls made with Paneer and potato are served in thick Curry. The curry is made out of mixture of onions, tomatoes, cashews and other dry fruits that are cooked together and mashed.
A Vegan, Gluten Free and Weight Loss Version
For a vegan version I will replace the milk with cashew milk. Also please replace paneer with tofu.
This is gluten free as we are not using anything that has gluten.
For weight loss version of malai kofta, I will bake the koftas instead of frying them. I will remove cashews from the gravy.
Tips for the best Malai Kofta
- You can cook the gravy in advance or bulk and use it both for this recipe and Malai Paneer Recipe
- Frying tip: Before putting koftas in oil, testing the temperature of oil by add a small piece. If it comes to the top without breaking the temperature is right. If it comes immediately up and smokes, the temperature is too high.
- You can skip adding raisin to the ball, if you don’t like sweet flavors in your curry
- You can replace whipping cream with milk
- You can replace paneer with tofu if you are a vegan
Ingredients
Gravy (Curry) Ingredients
- 1 CUP chopped onion
- 1 CUP chopped tomato
- 15-20 cashews
- 1 TSP salt
- 1 1/2 TBSP poppy seeds
- 1 TSP crushed ginger
- 1/2 TSP cardamom seeds
- 1 CUP water
Tempering Ingredients
- Gravy
- 1 TBSP Whipping Cream
- 1 TSP Sugar
- 4 Cardamom
- 2 Cloves
- 1 Thin Cinnamon Stick
- 1 Bayleaf
- 1 TSP Turmeric
- 1 TSP Cumin Powder
- 1 TSP Garam Masala
- 1 TBSP Kasoori Methi
Kofta Ingredients
- 2 CUPS Parboiled Potatoes
- 1 CUP Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese)
- 1 TSP Garam Masala
- 1/2 TSP Red Chilly Powder
- 1 TSP Raisins
- 1 TSP Salt
- 1 TSP Ginger
- 1 TBSP Corn Flour
- Oil for frying
Instructions – How to make Malai Kofta
How to cook the gravy (curry)
- Add all the gravy ingredients to a pan
- Add 1 cup water
- Boil them until mushy. Boiling these ingredients nicely will help take away the raw flavors of onions and tomatoes.
- Once boiled, let it cool a little bit
- Puree them with hand blender or a standard blender
Tadka – Tempering the Curry
- Add Oil to a pan
- Add bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, black cardamom and cinnamon stick
- As it starts to sizzle, add cumin powder, turmeric, red chilly powder and garam masala
- Add gravy
- Mix it well and cook
- Once you see glossy layer on the top, add 1 cup of water
- Bring it to boil
- Add whipping cream
- Bring it to boil again
- Add Kasoori methi while rubbing it in your palms for the flavor to come out well
- Gravy is ready
Prepare Kofta (Fried Balls)
- Mix all (Except raisins) kofta balls ingredients in a bowl
- Take 1 TBSP size mixture in your palm
- Add raisin to the middle of the mixture
- Roll it to a shape of ball or your desire
- Prepare all the balls
- Heat the oil on medium heat
- Add kofta balls
- Deep fry until golden
Assemble and Serve
- Add the gravy to a serving bowl
- Add kofta balls into the gravy (just before serving)
- Garnish with your choice of dry fruits
- Serve with Rice, Naan or Chapati
Low Fat Malai Kofta
Ingredients
Gravy (Curry) Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped tomato
- 15 cashews
- 1 tsp salt
- 1.5 tbsp poppy seeds
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- .5 tsp cardamom seeds
- 1 cup water
Tadka – Tempering Ingredients
- Gravy
- 1 tbsp Whipping Cream
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 4 Cardamom
- 2 Cloves
- 1 Thin Cinnamon Stick
- 1 Bayleaf
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 1 tsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 1 tbsp Kasoori Methi
Kofta Ingredients
- 2 cup Parboiled Potatoes
- 1 cup Paneer Indian Cottage Cheese
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- .5 tsp Red Chilly Powder
- 1 tsp Raisins
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Crushed Ginger
- 1 tbsp Corn Flour
- 4 tbsp Oil for frying
Instructions
Cook the gravy (curry)
- Add all the gravy ingredients to a pan
- Add 1 cup water
- Boil them until mushy
- Boiling these ingredients nicely will help take away the raw flavors of onions and tomatoes.
- Once boiled, let it cool a little bit
- Puree them with hand blender or a standard blender
Tadka – Tempering Curry
- Add Oil to a pan
- Add bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, black cardamom and cinnamon stick
- As it starts to sizzle, add cumin powder, turmeric, red chilly powder and garam masala
- Add gravy and Mix it well
- Keep on cooking. Once you see glossy layer on the top, add 1 cup of water
- Bring it to boil
- Add whipping cream and bring it to boil again
- Add Kasoori methi while rubbing it in your palms for the flavor to come out well
- Gravy is ready
Prepare Kofta (Fried Balls)
- Add all kofta ingredients (except raisins) in a bowl
- Knead it well without adding any water
- Take 1 TBSP size mixture in your palm
- Add raisin to the middle of the mixture
- Roll it to a shape of ball or your desire
- Prepare all the balls
- Heat oil on medium heat
- Add kofta balls
- Deep fry until golden
Assemble and Serve
- Add the gravy to a serving bowl
- Add kofta balls into the gravy (just before serving)
- Garnish with your choice of dry fruits and cream
- Serve with Rice, Naan or Chapati
