Tofu-veggie balls in curry sauce

Tofu-veggie balls in thai curry sauce

40 min
4-6 servings

Hearty winter meal that takes your traditional curry to the next level without putting much more effort. You might think the all the veggies have been taken out of this recipe but they actually very tightly packed in the crispy yet fluffy tofu-veggie balls. All your usual suspects packed in another form to gove more texture and make everything a little bit more exciting. 

Making a huge batch of the tofu-veggie balls also allows you to eventually change the sauce and enjoy a different meal every day of the week. You can try another curry, sweet-sour or peanut sauce, put them on a salad or make a spicy pita bread sandwich. Feel free to experiment, they will not disappoint you. 

These are of course also perfect who anyone who is not a fan of vegetables and tofu. They will both be transformed in a way that even the biggest sceptics can enjoy them. Go ahead and do the experiment.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg potatoes
  • 100 g (frozen) broccoli
  • 50 g (frozen) cauliflower
  • 1 carrot
  • 100 g celery root
  • 350 g tofu
  • 100 g fine oats (or more)
  • 50 g nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp thai curry spice mix or 1 tbsp thai curry paste
  • salt & pepper
For the sauce
  • 1 onion
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 3 tbsp ground almonds
  • 20 g nutritional yeast
  • 3 tbsp thai curry spice mix or 2 tbsp thai curry paste
  • 2 cans coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • salt & pepper to taste

If you are using curry paste you do not necessary need the next ingredients

  • 20 g ginger
  • 1 stalk lemongrass 
  • 1 chilli  

Toppings

  • 20 g coriander
  • 2 spring onions
  • 50 g peanuts

Method

  1. Peel and cut the potatoes, carrot and celery root in to 2 cm cubes. Boil for 10-15 minutes or until soft. 
  2. Place the frozen broccoli and cauliflower in a bowl. Pour the hot water from the potatoes on top and let sit for 1 minute. After that drain them well using a colander and presing to remove the liquid. (If you are using fresh broccoli and cauliflower, add them to the pot 5 minutes before the potatoes are ready.)
  3. Drain the water from the potatoes and add everything together into a big bowl. Crumble the tofu in the bowl and coarsely blend everything together with a hand blender. Add the spices, the nutritional yeast and the oats in portions. Once the mixture is not sticky anymore and balls can be formed, you cn stop adding oats. 
  4. Form balls with around 3 cm diameter and fry them in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and turn until brown on most sides. Alternatively brush the balls with olive oil and place them in an air fryer or in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes at 200°C
  5. While the tofu-veggie balls are cooking, finely chop the onion and garlic and sautee in a pan with a little bit of oil until golden. Add the ground almonds and the nutritional yeast and let them cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk and add the curry spice mix or paste. Add the tomato paste and the soy sauce and stirr to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. If using a spice mix, grate the ginger in. Break the lemongrass stalk by hitting a few times with a heavy object (e.g. rolling pin) and add to the sauce. Depending on the preferred spicyness, add one chilli with or without the seeds. Let that simmer until the sauce thikens – around 10 minutes.
  6. Serve the tofu-veggie balls with the sauce and sprinke some fresh coriander, cpring onion and peanuts on top.