Baked Cauliflower Veggie Balls in spiced tomato onion sauce. Cauliflower Kofta Curry. Vegan Indian Recipe. Soy-free, easily made gluten-free. Free of dairy, egg, corn, soy.
There are several types of Kofta curries. Koftas are balls of meat or veggies or cheese. The richer variety usually has paneer cheese or meat in the balls and cream based curries. The everyday kofta curry versions are vegetable based and can have veggies like cabbage, carrots, potatoes, green beans, cauliflower etc. They can be fried and added to a simple tomato onion sauce or just tomato sauce. This version uses Cauliflower. The koftas and the sauce can be made ahead and refrigerated, then warmed up to serve.
It seems like a veggie ball kind of season. Add shredded potato or jackfruit or vegan cheese shreds to the veggie balls for variation. Use almond or sunflower seeds in the balls instead of cashews. You can also made the koftas with shredded cabbage.
I had one too many kofta recipes (malai kofta, lasooni veggie kofta, cabbage veggie kofta and this cauliflower kofta) to choose from for the cookbook. It quite difficult to narrow down from 175 down to 150 🙂
More fun recipes from the blog!
Spicy Garlic Dal
Chickpea Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Smoky Tomato Sauce
Jackfruit “meatballs”
Mango Curry Tofu
Curried Chickpea Rice One Pot Pilaf
I have been using feedly more and more lately to keep track of all the blogs I want to keep track of. Everything in one place. You can find my feed on feedly here.
Steps:
I used my mini food processor and added everything to it and done within 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, the blended sauce is cooking down.
Still cooking and has some more minutes to go.
Add non dairy milk, Taste and adjust salt and spice. Serve over baked or pan fried koftas.
Recipe Card
Cauliflower Kofta Curry. Baked Cauliflower Veggie Balls in Spiced Tomato Onion Sauce. Vegan Recipe
Ingredients
Kofta/balls:
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) toasted cumin seeds
- 1/4 cup (32.25 g) cashews or use almond slivers or sunflower seeds
- 3 cups (300 g) cauliflower florets
- 1 hot green chili
- 1/4 cup (4 g) chopped cilantro
- 1/2 inch (0.5 inch) knob of ginger chopped
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) garam masala
- 1/4 cup (30 g) chickpea flour
- 1/4 cup (27 g) breadcrumbs or coarsely ground oat flour
- 1/4 cup (52.5 g) mashed potatoes or shredded potato
- 1 tsp organic canola or saffllower oil optional
- 2 cloves of garlic minced or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
Sauce
- 1 cup (14 g) chopped red onion
- 2 cups (298 g) chopped tomato 2 medium
- 1/2 inch (0.5 inch) knob of ginger
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp organic canola or safflower oil
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cloves
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) turmeric
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) or more garam masala
- 1 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup (250 ml) almond milk or coconut milk
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
- cilantro and cashew cream for garnish
Instructions
- Kofta/balls:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F / 220ºc. Toast the cumin seeds in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant (2 to 3 minutes),
- Process the cumin seeds and cashews in a food processor or blender to make a coarse mixture. Add all ingredients from cauliflower through garam masala and process. Or you can hand grate the cauliflower and mix in the spices.
- Transfer cauliflower mixture to a bowl. Add chickpea flour, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, potato, oil, garlic, salt and mix well. Do not let the mixture sit at this point as the cauliflower will start to leak moisture. Add more breadcrumbs if needed. (If the mixture is too dry, let it sit for a few minutes and then shape into balls, If it stays too dry, add 1 flax egg to help bind).
- Shape into an inch size balls or flat discs. Place on parchment lined sheet. Spray or brush oil on the balls. Bake 22-25 minutes or until golden. You can also pan fry the discs, 3 to 5 minutes each side until golden. (you might need more flour or breadcrumbs to make sturdy discs to pan fry. These koftas do better when baked)
- Sauce:
- In a blender, add onion, tomato, garlic, ginger and blend to a puree. Use a few Tbsps of water if needed.
- In a pan, add oil and heat over medium heat. One hot, add the bay leaf and cloves and cook for a few seconds. Add turmeric, garam masala, sriracha and a Tbsp of water. Cook for a minute.
- Add the blended puree and salt mix well. Cook uncovered until the mixture reduces to a thick wet paste, smells roasted and some oil can be seen on the edges. 20 to 25 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Add almond milk and water, mix and bring to a boil. about 5 minutes. Cook longer if needed for desired sauce consistency. Taste and adjust salt and spice. Add cayenne if needed. Serve warm koftas, drizzled with enough sauce. Garnish with cilantro or cashew cream. Serve with flatbread or rice.
Notes
Use 1/2 tsp coriander seeds instead of cumin seeds in the kofta balls.
Add 1/2 cup shredded potato, zucchini or vegan cheese to the kofta balls.
Add 1/2 cup of cooked beans like white beans or cooked split peas to the kofta balls. Omit the cashews. Nutritional values based on one serving
Nutrition
Sandra
Great recipe. Love that the kofta can be baked instead of fried.
Vegan Richa Support
still same great flavour, thank you Sandra
Albert
Adding thinly sliced cabbage enhanced the texture. instead of blending the wet ingredients first, sautéeing them prior to blending them was my variation. After baking, they were like healthy delicious pakoras!
Vegan Richa Support
nice twist Albert
Rinku Singh
Can I freeze the Koftas?
Richa
Yes
Yvette
Just awesome! I topped with a vegan Tzatziki I had in the fridge. The balls came out like restaurant. Thank you for the recipe!
Vegan Richa Support
mmmmmm tzatziki. Thank You!
Marianne
I made this last night with some homemade Chana masala on the side to compliment it. I didn’t have cilantro on hand and due to the social distancing, I didn’t want to run out just to put it. So…..I just added a bit more coriander to it and although I think the color would have been a nice touch to the koftas themselves, it was scrumptious. I did use fresh tomatoes for the sauce and light canned coconut milk. The sauce was exquisite. My teenager absolutely loved it and had thirds and so did my husband.
I have had this recipe printed off for so long, but knew that making koftas is time consuming. Now that I’m home for this self isolating period, I have lots of time to cook and fortunately had 99% of the ingredients on hand without preplanning for this meal.
Thanks for an amazing recipe. I have made lots of your recipes and they are all fantastic.
Vegan Richa Support
So glad you enjoyed it and were able to make “social distancing friendly” adjustments! Thanks for stopping by!
Maneesha
Hi Richa! This is an incredible recipe! I made it for a lunch party and it was a hit! I used this recipe for the koftas and mixed in the makhni sauce from your cookbook! It was a wowza meal!
Janette Ghisoni
An amazing recipe, better than any dish I have had in an Indian Restaurant. I don’t like fresh coriander so I used parsley instead. The sauce really complimented the kofta balls.
Richa
Thanks
Allie
These are wonderful- I love the mix of the three flavors (the sauce, kofta balls and then the cream sauce on top. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It’s so good!
Richa
awesome! thanks
lisa
i’m used to the taste and texture of deep-fried koftas soaked in sauce. how does the flavor and texture of baked compare to the deep-fried? thank you.
Richa
It depends on the type of koftas. These cauliflower ones will be a bit different when fried, but if you make the malai kofta from my book, you can barely tell the difference (they are panfried). Also most of the deep fried koftas probably use paneer, which is missing. Depending on the recipe i use different nuts as a substitute for the right texture and flavor. You can also deep fry the koftas if you like. Just make sure to bind them really well with some breadcrumbs.
Susan
I had all the ingredients ready, but my head cold was too much for cooking. So I sauteed the cauliflower in coconut oil, chopped some extra tomatoes, made the delicious sauce, thinned it a bit with extra coconut milk and water, added a couple cloves, more ginger, and extra heat with cayenne, and combined everything for an incredibly delicious soup that really helped my cold! I can’t wait to make the full recipe, but I’ll be making this soup again, too, if (when) I get another cold. Thank you!
Herman De La Cour
Thank you so much for sharing! I’ve just made it and it was delicious. I didn’t have a green chili, so added some chili powder instead. Also substituted the cashew cream with soya yogurt, but it still worked. I will definitely make this again.
Amanda Hyman
the sauce is more like thin soup, is this right? added the 1 c coco milk and 1/2 c water to the reduced tomato onion puree.
i love the koftas and the flavors are all wonderful!!
Richa
yes the sauce is on thin side. you an adjust it by cooking longer or adding coconut milk as you did
David Carns
This was s fantastic recipe. Thank you!!
Laura
I was halfway through the recipe prep when I realized I didn’t have a potato! I was able to successfully replace it with a little more chickpea flour and potato starch. The kofta held together beautifully. Thank you for making Indian food so vegan-friendly, Richa! I appreciate you very much.
M
This sauce was so delicious! I used it in combination with the cabbage kofta from your book — it was so yummy!
Anita
I made these tonight! Delicious! Thank you!
Richa
Awesome!
Tiffany
This is DELICIOUS!!
Richa
so glad you loved it!
Krithika
I’d like to make the koftas ahead of time and mix up the gravy as needed. Should I bake and freeze, or freeze after forming the balls and bake when I need it?
Richa
shape and freeze, then bake as double baking will dry them out.
Kari
Bought your cookbook over the weekend and made cabbage kofta as our first recipe. Threw it on some rice. Wow! We spent the whole meal being thankful we bought your book. And THEN we found out you had a website! YES! My husband loves califlower, so this will be our next kofta attempt.
Richa
Awesome!!!
Tiina
I made this and it all worked pretty well together, but to me it, was not a superb recipe unfortunately. The cauliflower balls were pretty nice and the sauce was pretty nice and it was all together pretty good. I think the sauce would need more of a rounded flavor of spices and it would need more different flavors. I think now it was a bit bland and a bit flat. The cauliflower balls were nice, the batter was good and they were easy to make and I was a bit worried cause the “dough” was very mild tasting, but after they came out of the oven, I kind of liked them more. But I think the sauce needs something more in the spice mix. 🙂
Richa
Hi Tiina,
Thanks for your feedback. You can add more spices to the sauce when you taste. The flavor depends on many things. How fresh and flavorful the spices and spice blends (garam masala) are. My homemade garam masala has a very strong flavor so sometimes I add less than what the recipe calls for. It can also be the salt as the right amount of salt helps the flavor and spices bloom. You can add more garam masala or add more ground cumin and coriander.
Sina @ Vegan Heaven
What a great idea! 🙂 I love cauliflower! Yummy!
Richa
me too!!
Seri97
Hi,
Will you share the recipie for the cashew cream? Thank you!
Richa
its just soaked cashews blended with a little water. Soak a a half cup or more cashews overnight, blend with a tbsp or more water until it is thick and creamy. Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar.
Lisa
Made the koftas and even my fussy teens ate them up
Sue
These are phenomenal! I loved the kofta by themselves so much!! And with the sauce they were also excellent. Tonight I hope to make Naan to go with the rest. Thank you for sharing your creativity and amazing recipes.
Richa
Awesome!!!
Almut
Weltklasse!!!!!!! 🙂 thank you for this recipe – I’m either in love or addicted or both 😉
Kind regards,
Almut
christine
I love cauliflower in all its guises and this sounds great – but I have to miss out on the chilli nowadays! I’m sure they’ll still taste good:)
Satya
Dear Richa,
I made this tonight, amazing!! Those flavors… you are so talented. I just saw in a post that the potato is supposed to be raw – I used a cooked on, and it worked too.
Thank you!!
Richa
Awesome!! the mashed potatoes are cooked, but you can also use shredded raw potatoes!
Airyfairycelt
I love them!
Mandee
Just made this yummy kofta with hubby for mother’s day and wedding anniversary dinner, incredible taste! We did use sunflowerseed, normal full cream milk (as we are not vegan) and had added 1 tsp of brown sugar to the sauce to add a hint of sweetness to the sauce. We also added a bit of raisin in the sauce. It’s better than the malai kofta we usually get from restaurant. Thank you for sharing the recipe and will definitely try other recipes too.
Richa
Awesome
Anna
gotta try this!!! I’m learning to love caulifower 🙂
https://aspoonfulofnature.wordpress.com/
lani
This is getting to be ridiculous…tee hee. I have pinned so many of your recipes that I think I need a board just devoted to you!!
Rachael @ La Fuji Mama
This looks absolutely amazing! I’ve already printed the recipe. Can’t wait to make it!
Cassie
This looks delicious! Vegan curry is my fave!
Patricia
Hi! Any suggestions to replace Garam Masala? I don’t really like that the taste of it.
Thanks!
pat
Richa
add more of ground cumin coriander, cayenne, cardamom, and cinnamon to taste
Jade
This looks absolutely divine! I just have one question about this recipe-are the shredded potatoes to be cooked prior to adding them to this recipe? or raw?
Richa
its raw. the balls are small so the potato gets cooked during baking.
IR
I love malai kofta. These look very delicious!! Your book is wonderfully made!!
asha singh
Too good mam simply awesome
mia
I love all your koftas Richa 🙂
Kyra @ Vie De La Vegan
These look delicious – I’ve never tried kofta balls before (probably because they usually have meat/cheese!) – going to put this on my meal plan for next week! Also – I’ve been using Feedly lately too, it’s so handy!