I had no idea as what a vegan means until I went to UK. My stay in UK reasonably increased my knowledge about food and various world cuisines. I was a vegetarian till that time. After being exposed to veganism, I tried being a vegan for some period of time and realized how difficult it is atleast for me. Few of my traditional recipes in my blog are vegan in nature. When I practiced veganism, I got to know many, good and healthy recipes.
After I moved to Chennai, I lost my interest and shifted back to the regular routine. Once in a while, when the thought comes to my mind, I used to make one or two vegan dishes. So, it was in my plan to make some beverage and bought a soy milk, which I forgot totally until I loaded my fridge with this month’s grocery. Coincidentally, I also had some leftover tofu after using in a subji. My vegan interest showed up again and the result is now in front of you.
The texture and taste of the tofu that I used to get in UK is a bit different from what I am getting here. The Tofu I get here in supermarkets almost tastes like paneer. If you see, I have added yellow food color in my recipe, just to avoid the unpleasant look of the soy milk. I had very little saffron, so I had to use food color. Otherwise, I would have added saffron generously to get the pleasant yellow color.
Basic Information:
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Servers: 4
Ingredients:
Tofu – 1/2 cup,grated or crumbled
Badam / Almond – 12 nos., roughly chopped
Cashew nuts – 2 tablespoons, roughly chopped
Walnuts – 3 nos., roughly chopped
Cucumber seeds – 2 teaspoons
Granulated sugar – 1/4 heaped cup
Green cardamom – 2 no,
Saffron strands – a generous pinch
Custard powder – 1 tablespoon, vanilla flavored
Water – 1 and 1/2 cup
Soy milk – 1 cup
Yellow food colour – a pinch (Optional)
Method:
1) Crumble tofu using your hand or grate it using grater. Finely chop all the dry fruits and toast it. Mix custard power in 3 tablespoons of water without lumps. Powder the sugar along with green cardamom.
2) Now, in a large pan, heat 1 and 1/2 cup of water.
3) When the water is about to boil, add crumbled tofu and cook for few minutes.
4) Reduce the flame to medium. Save some chopped nuts for garnishing and add the remaining dry fruits to the pan. Let it boil well. Keep an eye it might rollover.
5) Add sugar and once it is dissolves, add soy milk and custard mixture. Let it cook for few minutes and then, add saffron and food color (if using).
6) Cook till the kheer slightly thickens and turn off the flame.
7) Cool down to room temperature and keep refrigerated till you serve.
8) While serving, top it with crushed nuts and saffron. Enjoy.
Notes:
1) Dry fruits can be either ground or can be used as such. I love to have tiny nuts while having the kheer and hence added the finely chopped nuts instead of grinding. Choice of dry fruits is your choice but make it badam and cashew are as mandatory ingredients for the taste. Also, raw or toasted dry fruits can be used.
2) Instead of soy milk, you can also use cashew milk.
3) Only in the medium or low flame, add soy milk. Don’t heat it in high temperature, it might boil over or there is a chance of curdle.
4) Avoid food coloring by using the saffron generously.
5) Both Tofu and Soy milk are available in all supermarkets in chennai.
sooper delicious one..