Kosha mangsho – a Bengali curry with a rich, flavorful sauce – is a popular Eastern Indian Onion Cardamom Chili Sauce. I paired with tofu as meat substitute. It is super delicious with rice, naan, or luchi!

Kosha mangsho is a speciality meat curry from Bengali cuisine. Bengal is a state in the eastern part of India and it has its own cuisine and the cuisine has its set of special dishes. There is the kosha mangsho, which is a curry as well as dishes like puchka, which is sort of like pani puri. Bengali desserts include dishes like rasgulla and sandesh mishti.

There is a lot of seafood in Bengali cuisine, and the vegetable curries in this region are made differently. You can find some delicious Bengali curries already on the blog, like chapor ghonto(lentil stew with dumplings)and charchari (veggie stir fry).

The kosha mangsho we are making today is a vegan version of a meaty, Bengali mutton curry. Kosha means slow roasting and mangsho means meat, so for the traditional dish, you’d slow roast the sauce for a while, then add the meat to it and slow roast that as well, so the meat browns and picks up all of the amazing flavors from the sauce.

For the vegan version, we are going to brown our onions really well, so that we can use up all of that color and flavor of caramelization. Tofu is our meat substitute, but you can use other meat substitutes, as well, such as vegan chicken, vegan beef, vegan goat (if you can find it), and use those instead. You can also use chickpea flour tofu or just add some white beans or chickpeas to the sauce.

So much of the flavor is in the sauce that you won’t miss the meat!

Like many of the other regional Indian dishes, this one also uses a lot of whole spices, so use whichever spices you have on hand. If you are missing a spice here and there, it’s not going to take away from the dish. There’s plenty of flavor overall in this recipe.

This curry is a part of my Eastern Indian menu for Diwali! This year I am sharing 4 regional menus for your Indian dinner party. Regional Indian food often gets overlooked in the midst of the popular options, so try these recipes celebrating the many cuisines within Indian cuisine! You can find these fabulous recipes and menus on my YouTube channel here. Happy Diwali!

Why You’ll Love Kosha Mangsho

• flavorful Bengali curry cooks up in a single pan
• deep, authentic flavor without the meat!
• naturally gluten-free and easily made nut-free and soy-free

Continue reading: Kosha Mangsho (Bengali Mutton Curry with Onion Cardamom Chili sauce)

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Rara chicken curry, a North Indian Smoky Onion Fennel Pepper Cardamom curry, that is absolutely bursting with amazing complex flavors! Prepare it as-is with tofu or use your protein of choice to make it your own! It is delicious served with flatbread, naan, or rice.

Today, we are making vegan chicken rara. The pronunciation of this has a D or an H in the second R, but you can pronounce it however you like.

I’ve been exploring meat-heavy and regional Indian dishes, and developing easier and vegan versions of those. And this rara chicken is my most recent adaptation in this series!

The origins of rara chicken curry are disputed. It either comes from the Punjabi or Himachal region(north indian states), or it may come from Lucknowi cuisine(mid eastern state cuisine). There are different stories about it, but either way, it is an absolutely delicious North Indian curry! 

When you make these recipes with meat, it requires a lot more steps as well as cooking the meat in the sauce for a much longer time. But when we’re using plant-based protein — like tofu, beans, or chickpeas — they don’t need that much time in the sauce. If you’re using other vegan proteins, like seitan or soy curls, you can cook those in the sauce for a much longer time for a really good flavor infusion. This curry has both meaty tofu pieces and mince meat style tofu crumble. Substitute these to preference.

Rara chicken uses lots of umami-packed onion caramelized with whole spices, and then you add in a rara masala blend. The black cardamom, clove, and fennel seeds give an entirely different flavor to the dish, and also there’s quite a bit of Kashmiri chili powder to add a vibrant, red color and even more amazing flavor. If you don’t use Kashmiri chili powder and use paprika, the color payoff will be a little less. Different brands of Kashmiri chili powder will have different color payoffs and heat as well.

There are obviously many spices in this dish, but if you don’t have a spice or two, that’s fine. It’ll still turn out absolutely delicious, so definitely try it. 

We toast the spices for the rara masala blend before grinding them, because it is also used as a finishing spice. It is important that you roast the finishing spice beforehand to give the final blend a melded flavor profile. Otherwise, some of the spices, like fennel, will show up a lot more strongly in the spice blend, and some of the spices might make everything taste a bit too earthy if they’re not toasted. 

Rara chicken curry is a very thick-sauced dish. If you prefer more sauce, add in more water, stock, or non-dairy milk. The sauce is simmered for quite a bit of time to get all that flavor payoff out of the spices.

One of the main reasons I’m making vegan versions of these meaty dishes is that they tend to have a lot more spices, and decadent sauces compared to the vegetarian versions. This is either because the meat needs more seasoning, or because meat dishes are more pricey (in India). When you’re paying that much for a dish in a restaurant, you want something decadent and creamy with a complex flavor profile. 

But all of that flavor is actually in the sauce, so we’re using that same sauce and all of those spices with plant-based protein. You can also add roasted veggies to the sauce instead for a really flavor-packed veggie side.

Why You’ll Love Rara Chicken Curry

• simplified, plant-based version of a North Indian classic curry
• roasted whole spices give the tofu and sauce amazing flavors from cardamom, cloves, fennel seeds, and more
• one-pan meal
• versatile! Bake or fry the tofu, or use protein of your choice. It’s even OK if you’re missing a few of the spices.
• gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free option

Continue reading: Rara Chicken Curry (North Indian Smoky Onion Pepper Cardamom curry)

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Harissa tofu bowls with herbed rice, crunchy veggies and a zesty dressing is an easy, flavor-packed weeknight meal that’s very flexible! Make it exactly as-is, or mix and match veggies to use what you have. Serve in a bowl, or make a wrap!

This is the type of bowl meal that I love to whip up on busy weeknights: lots of crunchy veggies; a delicious dressing; and protein, like marinated beans or crisp, seasoned tofu. You combine it all in a bowl with either cooked grains, such as rice or quinoa, or some pasta/noodles. This combination is so flexible and works really well! And the best part is that for most of them, there is little cooking time, so it comes together quickly and is absolutely delicious and satisfying. 

The flavor in these harissa tofu bowls comes from the delicious crisped tofu seasoned with harissa sauce and herbs, and the zesty garlic lime maple dressing. Plus, there’s all that flavor from the different herbs and crunchy veggies, as well.

You can convert this into a wrap or sandwich, too, if you like! Other flexible meals like this include my Vietnamese curry tofu bowl, chili garlic sandwich, gochujang sandwich, and curry banh mi. Or make into hummus bowls like my harissa cauliflower hummus bowl. Those can also be served as bowls or as sandwiches or wraps. 

You can change up the veggies in these harissa tofu bowls to use whichever veggies you like. You can also pair it with shredded lettuce or cabbage instead of rice, if you want it to be more like a salad. It’s just an incredibly flexible recipe, so have fun, and make it your own!

Why You’ll Love Harissa Tofu Bowls

• super flexible, 30-minute meal
• crunchy veggies make this dish so FRESH and reduce cooking time!
• crisp, flavorful harissa tofu is so delicious!
• naturally gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free options

Continue reading: Harissa Tofu Bowls (30 minutes, gluten-free, nut-free with soy-free option)

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Cozy, hearty spinach cheese stuffed Mushroom Parmesan, is a one-pan dinner that your family is going to love! Even the orzo pasta bakes up in the pan with the cheesy mushrooms and marinara sauce! 1 pan, 1 baking Step!

I wanted to make a simple mushroom parmesan pasta bake, because I had plenty of mushrooms on hand. And I wanted to reduce the pans and time in the kitchen. Enter this cozy 1 Pan Orzo bake!

The mushrooms are stuffed with this delicious spinach-tofu-cheese mixture that I often use to make stuffed shells, then I top it with a cruncy breadcrumb topping and pair it with a pasta, I use orzo, but other shapes will work too! The pasta and the sauce at the bottom, topped with cheesy stuffed mushrooms, and a crisp breadcrumb topping. Everything cooks in just one pan and one baking step!

The prep is very simple. Just make your spinach-tofu-cheese mixture by adding everything to a bowl and mixing it. Prep your mushrooms by removing the stems, and that’s it!  

It’s an easy recipe that’s pretty flexible, too. You can add some veggie grounds or vegan ground meat substitute in with the pasta sauce to add extra protein to the meal. The recipe is already nut-free, and it’s easy to make soy-free and gluten-free, too.

You want to use about two- to three-inch mushrooms. Larger mushrooms take longer to cook, and pasta will overcook in that much time, so medium-sized works best here. I also use the mushroom stems in the recipe, so don’t discard them. Just trim away the tough end of the stem and discard that, but save the rest of the stem to chop up into the pasta sauce.

I paired this mushroom parmesan with orzo pasta, because it cooks up really easily in the baking dish and it works out just amazing. You can add a different pasta of choice, as well, just bake a few minutes longer until the pasta is cooked to preference. 

Why You’ll Love Mushroom Parmesan

• hearty mushrooms with marinara sauce and pasta
• cheesy spinach and tofu topping with crunchy breadcrumbs on top
• easy to make in 1 pan in under an hour
• naturally nut-free with easy gluten-free and soy-free options

Continue reading: Mushroom Parmesan Pasta Bake (1-pan, nut-free, with soy-free and gluten-free options)

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This is a super delicious tofu tray bake with tofu and vegetables tossed in a delicious jerk inspired marinade and roasted. Just marinate and spread on a pan and bake! Serve just as-is or in a wrap, over a bed of rice or quinoa, or over salad greens. Easy 1 Pan weeknight meal. Soyfree option

This tray bake dinner is super easy and it’s super flavorful. I make an easy blender marinade with lots of herbs and spices. Then the tofu and veggies are tossed in the marinade, spread on a baking sheet and baked! And that’s it. This tray bake can be served as is or over cooked grains or over a salad, or a wrap. The caramelized herbed veggies and the crisped up flavorful tofu are heavenly.

The marinade is inspired by Jamaican jerk marinade, but I changed it a bit, omitting some of the spices you find in jerk seasoning, like allspice and cinnamon. You can add those for even more flavor.  

This goes well with any kind of protein that you’re want to use. If you don’t want to use tofu, just add some chickpeas, chickpea tofu, soaked and drained soy curls, or your favorite vegan chicken substitute. 

You can add more veggies to your tofu tray bake, and you definitely want to double or triple the marinade to keep on hand, so you can toss it in whatever veggies and proteins you want, whether you want to bake or or pan fry them. The marinade is just amazing either which way, so let’s make it!

Why You’ll Love this Tofu Tray Bake

• easy 1-pan meal with almost no active cooking time
• flavorful jerk seasoning-inspired marinade is amazing on the tofu and the veggies
• versatile! Use your plant-based protein and veggies of choice.
• make-ahead up to 2 days
• naturally gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free options

Continue reading: Tofu Tray Bake (gluten-free, nut-free)

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Saag butter beans — creamy spinach curry with melt-in-your-mouth beans and lots of amazing Indian spices — is a hearty, veggie-forward main dish that’s just got an incredible flavor and texture! What makes it really special is the crispy garlic chili oil tempering that you drizzle on top. Serve with rice, naan, flatbread, or sourdough for an easy, flavorful meal. Gluten-free soyfree and nutfree

I finally got some butter beans to use in this simple saag. Saag basically means greens, and the most common saag uses mustard greens. For this saag we use spinach to make a really flavorful spinach curry with a set of spices for the authentic flavor. If you don’t have every single spice listed here, use whichever spices you have, and it will still turn out amazing. 

To get the right texture for the greens, use frozen spinach and pulse it in the food processor while it’s still frozen. That gives it this coarsely chopped texture which I really love in my saag. If you don’t like any texture in your saag, you can puree the spinach with some water or non-dairy milk and use that mixture.

Choose whichever method you like for preparing your saag. Whether the texture is chunky, chopped, or smooth, it will taste amazing, especially with these creamy butter beans and savory tempering!

Why You’ll Love Saag Butter Beans

• creamy butter beans in a deeply seasoned spinach curry sauce
• crispy chili garlic tempering oil adds even more flavor and amazing texture
• easy to make with any greens you like
• simple, 1-pan meal ready in about half an hour
• naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free

Continue reading: Saag Butter Beans (Beans in North Indian Spinach curry)

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Lentil Potato vindaloo is a plant-based version of vindaloo curry with a lot less work. No need to soak and blend the chilies, I give you a quick vindaloo spice mix. Hearty lentils and potatoes are absolutely delicious in this tangy Goan curry sauce! Gluten-free with soy-free and nut-free options

Vindaloo is a popular stew from Goan cuisine, which is a Western state in India. Goan cuisine has Portuguese influences, because of Portuguese explorers that came to India centuries ago.

Portuguese cuisine has a lot of meaty dishes, and such as meat cooked with lots of wine and garlic. People in Goa took that and converted it to vindaloo curry, replacing the wine with vinegar, adding a lot more spices and a lot more heat, and generally making it their own.

They called this adapted curry vindaloo curry. Vindaloo curry paste has a lot of spices, Kashmiri chilis, and, depending on the recipe, it usually has a couple of steps where you toast all the spices and the Kashmiri chilis, soak the chilis, then blend them to make the sauce. If you want to check out that version of homemade vindaloo paste, you can find that on my tofu vindaloo recipe.

For today’s recipe, I’m making a simple version of the curry by making this vindaloo spice mix using ground spices, rather than grinding down whole spices in a spice grinder. You can adjust the heat of the spice by adjusting the Kashmiri chili powder and black pepper. This spice mix is delicious and potent, you can use it many ways! Use it on roasted veggies, sprinkle as a finishing spice(instead of garam masala), use as a marinade over tofu with soy sauce and vinegar and many more!

To make the vindaloo sauce, we cook the onion and then toast the spice mix with the onion in a little bit of oil. From there, you add the rest of the ingredients, including cooked lentils and crispy potatoes, for this absolutely delicious lentil curry. 

You can use other beans, such as white beans, black beans, kidney beans, or chickpeas or you can use crisped up tofu or vegan chicken instead. If you don’t want to add potatoes, you can use other vegetables or just skip the potatoes altogether. 

This lentils vindaloo is a very flexible recipe. All that flavor is in the spice mix and the curry sauce, so you can just make that sauce, and then add whatever additions you like to it. Also try my Goan Peri peri sauce!

Why You’ll Love Lentils Vindaloo

• one-pan Indian curry with an amazing, zesty sauce, crispy potatoes and hearty lentils
• so versatile! Use plant-based protein of choice in place of lentils and/or the potatoes.
• simplified vindaloo spice mix saves tons of time and effort
• naturally gluten-free with easy soy-free and nut-free options

Continue reading: Vindaloo Curry with Lentils and Potato

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I used to love black pepper chicken or Sichuan pepper chicken in Chinese and inspired restaurants. It usually is a popular favorite amongst many—so I thought why not test out my own vegan-friendly inspiration with soy curls? Soy curls are a great food staple for vegetarians and vegans because they are protein-based and you can do so much with them. Spice it up or marinade them, bake them, pan fry them, shred them, crisp them.

This recipe requires minimal and simple ingredients but it doesn’t lack flavor. The pepper, the sauce and the crunchy veggies are just perfect. This super easy recipe will be a new go-to favorite if you often find yourself with a busy schedule and need something quick to whip up.

I marinade the soycurls in stock then drain and coat in spices and cornstarch and then crisp them up by baking or pan frying. Soaking in stock and adding flavor to the coating adds a deeper flavor in the soycurls. Baking crisps them up nicely to act as crispy chicken which would usually be fried. This adds to the number of steps but we are using same ingredients again in the sauce.

What Are Soy Curls?

Soy curls are made of soy beans. The process to create soy curls comes from boiling and dehydrating whole soybeans. In turn, this process gives this vegan protein a chicken-like texture. They are often used as meat alternatives. Butler soy curls can be found at most health food stores like Whole Foods.

What can I make with soycurls ?

• General tso soycurls
• Skillet soycurl Chikin enchiladas
• Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Garlic Soy Curls

Other Delicious Dinner Recipes

• Indo Chinese Chilli Garlic Noodles
• Samosa Wraps – Spiced Potatoes, Chickpeas, Chutney Burrito
• Vegan Cauliflower Tikka Masala
• Pulled Jackfruit Sandwiches

Continue reading: Black Pepper Chikin Soy Curls

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This is Goan(Indian) version of peri peri chicken made with hot chilis, Indian spices, and lots of ginger and garlic. Roasted Tofu chicken in a fiery chili garlic sauce, is perfect served with rice, baked veggies, or pasta!

This is a spicy and amazingly delicious recipe from Goan cuisine. Goa as a state on the western coast of India, and the cuisine has influences from Portuguese cooking and from Southern African cuisine, which came with the Portuguese. This is how the Indianized Goan peri peri sauce came into being. 

Indian peri peri sauce is a bit different from the African version, because it has Indian spices and uses Kashmiri chilis in addition to the peri peri/ pili pili chilies. If you can’t find peri peri chilies, just use hot Indian chilies. These chilies are soaked and blended up with Indian spices, ginger, and garlic to make the sauce. The sauce can then be used in various ways!

For the vegan version of Goan peri peri chicken, we use sliced tofu that is marinated and then crisped on a skillet, then placed in the sauce to serve. You can use other proteins with sauce as well. You can toss your protein in the sauce marinade and crisp it up on the skillet or in the oven, or you can just simmer the protein right in the sauce.

This sauce is often used to make peri peri chicken, prawns, or shrimp. Today, we are making a peri peri chicken version, but instead of chicken, we’re using tofu, and we’re slicing it and shaping it into a chicken breast shape. You can also just cube the tofu or tear it into organic shapes and use that instead, if you prefer. 

If you’d rather not use tofu, there are plenty of other plant-based proteins that you can use, such as tempeh or soy curls. For a soy-free version, use chickpea tofu, pumpkin seed tofu, soy-free vegan chicken substitutes, or seitan. You can also add beans or mushrooms to the sauce.

The dish can be made dry-ish, where all of the sauce kind of sticks to the tofu, or it can be made more saucy with some extra broth.

The sauce has this delicious smoky and spicy flavor from all the chilis. You can adjust the heat by reducing amount of peri peri chilis used in the recipe. Kashmiri chilis are pretty mild, but you can reduce those, as well. The sauce also has black pepper, so you can reduce that to reduce the heat, as well. 

Why You’ll Love Peri Peri Chicken

• super flavorful, smoky, spicy sauce with an adjustable heat level
• Use tofu or whatever plant-based protein you like!
• If you choose to pan fry the tofu, it’s a one pan dinner.
• gluten-free and nut-free with easy soy-free and oil-free options

Continue reading: Goan Peri Peri Chicken – Tofu in Indian Chili Garlic Sauce (gluten-free, nut-free)

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Vegan sausage pasta sauce skillet with white beans, walnuts, sun dried tomato, is a simple, one-pan recipe that comes together really quickly with everyday ingredients. Instead of adding pasta or gnocchi to this umami rich sauce, we add beans to it, for a protein-packed Smoky Bean Stew. Gluten-free

I love adding beans to various kinds of sauces. Be it Indian sauces or pasta sauces, like my rose sauce beans, spinach Alfredo beans or stroganoff beans!. In this version, I make a simple and delicious sausage pasta sauce. For the sausage we use chopped walnuts and mushroom with tons of sausage-y seasonings — like fennel seeds, smoked paprika, pepper flakes, and Italian herbs. This makes the mixture taste and feel like a browned sausage crumble! This mixture then gets cooked along with the aromatics for the quickest from-scratch vegan sausage crumble EVER.

Then, you just add some tomatoes, tomato paste, vegan cheese, and water to make a delicious, simple sauce that you can add beans to, like I’ve done here, or you can add pasta or gnocchi to it. Or, if you want to have it all, you can add the beans to the sauce and serve it over pasta!

You can also serve this as a herbed Bean stew or use this sauce over a baked potato or roasted cauliflower steaks or just serve it as-is with some garlic bread or toasted sourdough.

Why You’ll Love Bean Sausage Pasta Sauce skillet

• 30-minute, 1-pan meal that’s packed with flavor
• from-scratch vegan sausage crumble cooks in the pan with the sauce to save time and dishes
• tons of sausage-y flavor without any meat!
• creamy, flavorful sauce with tons of umami from sun dried tomatoes
• gluten-free, and soy-free with nutfree option

Continue reading: White Bean Sausage Pasta Sauce Skillet (1 pan, 30 minutes)

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