Vegan

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

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

More Western Indian Recipes

Tofu Vindaloo – Tofu in chili garlic vinegar sauce
Mushroom Xacuti – Goan Coconut poppy seed sauce
Konkani Curry – Lentils in Konkani curry bake
Mango Chickpea Zucchini Koshimbir Salad with Indian spiced oil

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

The post Goan Peri Peri Chicken – Tofu in Indian Chili Garlic Sauce (gluten-free, nut-free) appeared first on Vegan Richa.

Vegan

Tofu Kondattam (South Indian Spicy Crispy Tofu)

Tofu Kondattam, a South Indian crispy spicy tofu is a fantastic side or appetizer! Tofu is crisped with spices then tossed in a thick sauce of aromatics, four types of chilies – Kashmiri chili powder, pepper, red and green chilies, curry leaves and Garam masala! Try this regional Indian recipe.

tofu kondattam in the pan after cooking and adding garnishes

I love this spicy crispy kondattam. This southern Indian spicy dish usually has chicken is marinated and then fried. I’ve made a version before, see my crispy Soy Curls Kondattam. For this version, I make it saucier and use tofu that is marinated and baked to get it nice and crisp without. Then, we make the sauce and toss all of that together for this amazingly flavorful dish that you can serve as a starter, side or as an entree.

Chicken kondattam is a spicy dish from the southern Indian state of Kerala. Traditionally, for this dish, chicken is marinated in a fiery red marinade and then fried to crisp. Then it is tossed with thick sauce of dried chilies, curry leaves, ground spices, and Kashmiri chili powder.

Tofu kondattam is really hot with four types of chilis bringing the heat: Kashmiri chili powder, black pepper, dried red chilis and green chilies! If you want it to be less hot, you can reduce the amount of dried red and the green chilies or choose milder versions. You can cut down on the black pepper and Kashmiri chili powder, as well. The color will change a bit, because the Kashmiri chili powder adds a lot of color to the dish, but there’ll still be plenty of flavor, even if you need to cut it a little bit.

This dish definitely tastes the best if you use real Kashmiri chili powder, because the chilies have a specific flavor profile. It will work with paprika instead, but for the real deal, get some Kashmiri chili powder.