Vegetable Kofta Balls In Tomato Sauce

Vegetable Kofta Balls In Tomato Sauce

    These vegetarian kofta balls can easily substitute meat balls in a dish. The gramflour in the kofta balls is protein rich and the vegetables add many nutrients to them. These kofta balls are quite versatile. You can fold them into any curry or sauce of your choice or even dunk them into a kadhi to eat with rice.

    There are many options for cooking the kofta balls as well. You can bake them in an oven, steam them, shallow fry them, cook them in an aebleskiver pan or appa chetty like I have or even deep fry them, making them rich and indulgent.

    The kofta balls are infused with spices that make them full of flavor. The tomato sauce on the other hand is mild and nice and provides a perfect contrast to the spicy kofta balls.

    You can serve the kofta balls over a bed of rice, quinoa, couscous, millets or pasta. The options are plenty and you can choose whatever you want based on your choice, preferences and local grains that are easily available, depending on which part of the world you live in.

Ingredients:

For the tomato sauce:

• 8 to 10 tomatoes, quartered
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 3 cups (750 ml) water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ to ¾ tsp cayenne or red chili powder
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp raw sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh basil or 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp salt

For the kofta balls:

• 1 cup cabbage, grated
• 1 cup carrots, grated
• 1 cup beetroot, grated
• 1 ½ to 2 cups gram flour (besan flour)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp asafetida
• 1 tsp cumin seed powder
• 1 tsp coriander seed powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• ¾th to 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp garam masala powder

Method:

Make the sauce:

1. Wash the tomatoes, scoop out the eyes and quarter them. Peel and chop the carrots. Place the tomatoes and carrots in a pressure cooker and cover them with water. Pressure cook until the first whistle and then turn off the heat.
2. Allow to cool and blend to a fine puree
3. In a pan, heat the oil and once the oil is warm enough, add the bay leaf and the ground tomato puree.
4. Put in the cayenne or red chili powder, freshly ground black pepper, and sugar. Season with salt and boil for 5 minutes or until the sauce is nice and thick.

Make the kofta balls:

1. Grate the veggies in a bowl. In another bowl, put in the gramflour, salt and all the spices and mix well. Put in the grated veggies and mix until the flour and veggies are well combined. Add more flour if required. Do not over mix or over knead the dough as over kneading makes the dough sticky and difficult to handle.
2. Make small balls or koftas and bake them (at 180 C for about 20 minutes), fry them in an appa chetty or aebleskiver pan or deep fry the koftas in hot oil.
3. Mix in the koftas into the tomato sauce. Serve over spaghetti, pasta, quinoa or millets.
4. If you use watery vegetables, the amount of gramflour used solely depends on the water content of the vegetables used.

                                                                                                                                               EnjoyFood!