Please fellow vegan sisters and brothers lend me you hand…
I love indian food so fucking much. One might even consider it a problem. Not me.
Ever since this phenomenon has blessed my taste buds I have never been the same. Am I truly who I thought I was? Am I truly human?
For you see fellow Lemmyheads when I am graced with a buffet full of these exquisite succlent dishes I cannot contain the beast within. I. Must. Gorge.
Somosas? Gone I ate them when you weren’t looking, korma? You must have accidentally thrown it in the bin… Aka my mouth, naan? The dog must have got it… Woof woof…
Sorry almost lost myself there for a bit. The point being, I fucking love this shit. However I can never get it to taste like restaurant style indian food, especially vegan style. I have been vegan for about 2 and a half years, and still have not mastered this art. It’s always just a sad attempt at glory.
So I ask you… Please bless me with your sacred texts… Your knowledge… The bay leaf that you know the flavor it adds but I am clueless…
How the hell do I make that good shit? How do I make it bussin?
(Bonus points:
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for anyone who can give me tips on how to get soy curls to taste like chicken.
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your best recipes for vegan chicken coconut korma, butter chicken, samosas, naan, vegetable kurma. These are some of my favorites )
Thank you for your time… May the odds be ever in my favor…
Rainbow Plant Life website has a lot of good vegan Indian recipes. I’ll share some of the ones I use. I never used soy curls but baking tofu coated in a bit of flower and cornstarch mixed with seasonings gives it a chewier, meatier texture.
navratan:
rajma:
One thing that makes a huge difference is fresh spices. Even if the spices themselves aren’t super fresh, if you buy whole spices they degrade much slower than pre ground. A cheap coffee grinder is super handy for this. They are also cheaper. I have a bag of garam masala mix and I just grind what I need each time.
If you are comparing to restaurant food you might not be using as much fat and salt as they do. Personally I don’t cook with oil but common practice is to fry the spices and aromatics a bit to help release their flavours.
Fresh onion and ginger also makes a big difference I find, and lots of it. When I make a tomato gravy I process the onion and ginger together in the food processor for the base.
