Vegan

Chicken Angara (North Indian Smoky Creamy Chili Sauce with Tofu)

This is a vegan version of rich, smoky Indian chicken angara. This restaurant-style curry has an aromatic chili sauce with amazing, fiery flavors! Serve with naan, flatbread, or rice or over baked potato for a delicious meal. gluten-free with nut-free and soy-free options

chicken angara in the pan after cooking and adding garnish

Chicken angara is a popular dish in some North Indian restaurants. It has this thick sauce made with fried onion, yogurt, lots of spices, and either dried whole Kashmiri chilis, regular Indian chilies, or Kashmiri chili powder. The chilis add to the fiery red color of the sauce as well as to the heat.

hand scooping up chicken angara with a piece of naan

Angar means fire, and you’re incorporating fire into this dish by adding a lot of heat and color from the Kashmiri chilis and smoking it with some live fire at the end. The signature smoky flavor is incorporated using a smoking food safe charcoal. But We smoke it using a cinnamon stick. Just heat the cinnamon stick (or charcoal) until it’s red hot, then put it in a heat safe ramekin, drizzle with a little bit of oil. The ramekin actually goes into the pan of finished chicken angara, and you cover the pan with the lid, so the smoke infuses the dish.

close-up of flatbread with chicken angara on top on a plate

This is another recipe in my series where I veganize traditionally meat-heavy Indian dishes. Check out my recipes for Salli Boti ( western Indian curry with potato sticks), Rara Chicken(North Indian onion cardamom curry), Goan Peri peri Chikin tofu, and Pahadi curry (Mountain onion pepper curry), for more from this series.

As with lots of Indian curries, the flavor is in the sauce, so you can use your plant-based protein of choice and it will still taste absolutely delicious. If you don’t want to use tofu, you can use chickpea tofu, chickpeas or other white beans, veggies, vegan chicken, or seitan. And as with many restaurant style curries, it’s about patience on letting everything toast and toast really well at each step and letting the flavors develop! Let’s make this fantastic tofu Angara!

flatbread with chicken angara on top on a plate

Why You’ll Love Angara Chicken

rich, smoky, plant-based North Indian restaurant curry with so many amazing spices!
fun to make! Play with fire!
delicious one-pan meal
naturally gluten-free with easy soy-free and nut-free options

hands holding chicken angara folded into a piece of flatbread

More North Indian Curries

Punjabi Kadhi Pakora
Kali Mirch Beans
Vegetables Bhuna
Malai Palak Chicken

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Vegan

Summer Spinach Salad with Chickpea Olive Crumble

A fully loaded, flavor packed, protein rich summer spinach salad with an umami-packed crisp chickpea hemp seed olive crumble, nutrient dense greens, and creamy, vibrant tahini lemon dressing. A perfect hot weather dinner. (23g protein and 15g fiber per serving, (gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, high protein)

This is a fantastically hearty summer spinach salad. It has so many textures and flavors, and it has 80 grams of protein for the entire salad. That’s 20 grams of protein per serving. For a salad!

There is protein from the chickpeas, from the hemp seeds, and from the nutritional yeast in the chickpea crumble. There’s also protein from the tahini in the dressing, the non-dairy yogurt (depending on the brand), as well as a little protein from the greens that you use in the salad. You can amp up the protein even more by sprinkling it with some hemp seeds before serving or adding some of my tofu bacon bits, or other high protein toppings.

fork taking a bite of summer spinach salad with chickpea olive crumbles

The salad has this creamy texture from the dressing, the crunch from the fresh veggies, and crispiness from the chickpea crumbles, which we bake until they’re crispy-crunchy. The umami comes from the olives and the sun-dried tomato, and the refreshing, fresh flavor comes from lemon zest, the cucumbers, and any other crunchy veggies and greens.

It’s just a fabulous combination of flavors and textures. The combination of tahini and yogurt helps mellow tahini’s strong flavor and makes for a rich, creamy dressing.

Why You’ll Love this Summer Spinach Salad

incredible combination of flavors and textures! Crunchy veggies, creamy dressing, and savory, crisp chickpea-olive crumble.
easy to make in about 30 minutes
packed with veggies and protein
naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free