Tandoori Tofu

I feel like I have been stretching the "art" in food art lately, and I promise to post some prettier confections soon. I am really craving an exciting occasion to bake for. In the mean time, I thought that these kabobs came out quite nice and delicious. 

These are my little twist on "Tandoori" kabobs--no Tandoori oven, grill, or marinade required! I totally agree that Tandoori kabobs right off a BBQ grill or oven are amazing, but usually I do not have the time for that, so here is my happy compromise. It is a super fast and simple recipe that will take you no longer than any other sauté dish. It is healthy too--just veggies, spices, yogurt, and tofu. 

Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 14oz packet of tofu
1 large potato
1 large sweet potato or yam
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper
4-5 cloves garlic (minced)
1 cup yogurt (Greek yogurt works even better!)
1 tbsp all-purpose flour or chickpea flour
1 tbsp lemon juice
1.5 tbsp vegetable oil
0.5 tsp red chili powder (or more if you like it hot!)
0.25 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp of cilantro powder
small handful of chopped cilantro
salt and black pepper to taste

The steps:

1. Cook the potatoes. You can either do this traditionally by boiling the potatoes or cooking them in a pressure cooker, or you can be lazy like me and use a microwave: peel the potato and sweet potato, chop into large chunks, and nuke covered in a bowl filled half way with water. I find that the regular potatoes take 4-5mins while sweet potatoes take 2-3mins on the highest power. Cook till mostly done, but not quite all the way, as they will cook for another few minutes in the sauté. 

2. Chop the tofu and onions into large chunks. 

3. Start the vegetable oil in a sauté pan or wok on medium heat and add the minced garlic. 

4. Once the garlic has browned, add the tofu and cook till the pieces nicely brown. This takes a few minutes and you want to be flipping the pieces around on all sides so they get a chance to brown. 

5. Once the tofu has mostly browned, add the potatoes/onions and do the same thing, just wait for everything to start forming a nice brown crust. 

6. Add the yogurt, flour, and spices and cook for a couple more minutes

7. Lastly add in the lemon juice and cilantro

You can eat the mixture just like this, maybe with some naan, roti, or rice. Or, you can make skewers like I did. I added color using strings of bell pepper. Get creative. In the past I have added carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers of different colors, etc. and they all go great in this recipe. Let me know if you come up with any exciting variations.