“Hariyali” refers to the beautiful shamrock green colour of the marinade. My recipe puts a glut of coriander and mint to good use and the tandoori-style drumsticks pair perfectly with salad and freshly-made Indian flatbreads like naan, paratha and chapattis.

Even though the marinade is packed full of big, punchy flavours, the spicing is simple using lots of ginger, chillies and garlic. Cashews and coconut yoghurt give the super green marinade body so that it clings on the the “chicken” drumsticks with ease. Both vegetarians and meat eaters will be able to dig in to these party-ready vegan drumsticks so they’re a great option for big gatherings.

I like to keep batches of vegan seitan chicken in the freezer. I make shreds, pieces, loaves and drumsticks so I can quickly whip some out and marinate them or pop them straight into curries, stir fries and noodles.

Traditionally, Hariyali Chicken is a mouth-watering appetiser which is popular in Northern India and is best enjoyed with red onions or kachumber (a mix of red onions and tomatoes) and chutneys. I like to top them with a handful of juicy pomegranate seeds for a burst of freshness.

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Vegan Hariyali “Chicken” Drumsticks

Hariyali refers to the beautiful shamrock green colour of the marinade. My recipe puts a glut of coriander and mint to good use and the tandoori-style drumsticks pair perfectly with salad and freshly-made Indian flatbreads like naan, paratha and chapattis.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Indian

Keyword marinade, seitan, vegan

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Sanjana

Ingredients

For the vegan “chicken drumsticks”:

• 300 g extra-firm tofu drained
• 1 400 g tin haricot beans inc. the liquid from the tin (you can also use any other white beans, such as cannellini beans or butter beans)
• 150 g vital wheat gluten I buy mine on Amazon
• 150 ml cold water
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp white miso paste
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 3 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

You will also need:

• 10 flat wooden lollipop sticks
• Kitchen foil

For the hariyali paste:

• 120 g fresh coriander
• 50 g fresh mint
• 2 thin green chillies
• 3 tbsp coconut yoghurt
• 8-10 cashews
• 1- inch piece ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp agave nectar

Instructions

• In a blender, combine the tofu, haricot beans in their liquid, miso paste, soy sauce, salt, nutritional yeast, oil and water until you have a smooth paste.
• Add the vital wheat gluten to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the tofu mixture and mix on a low speed until the two come together in the form of a dough.
• Switch the paddle attachment to a dough hook and mix on a medium/high speed for 10-12 minutes. Stay close by as the mixer may shuffle across the counter top as the dough is tough to work. You’ll also need to be very careful your mixer’s motor doesn’t burn out. This kneading of the dough is crucial in developing the gluten and proteins in the seitan and shouldn’t be skipped. The longer and harder you work it, the more fibrous and chicken-like the final product will be. I wouldn’t recommend doing it by hand as your arms might threaten to fall off. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger would struggle, seriously. Having said this, you can create seitan kneading by hand - it will not however, have a shreddable, “pulled” quality and you’ll finish up with a spongy end product instead. It’ll still taste good but probably won’t fool your meat-eating friends.
• Once your seitan has been kneaded long and hard, remove it from the mixer and divide it into 10 equal pieces. Wrap each piece around a wooden lollipop stick into a drumstick-like shape. Next, wrap each “drumstick” very tightly in 2-3 layers of heavy-duty foil, trying to maintain the shape as well as possible. You want it to be nice and compact inside to stop it expanding inside as this will promote sponginess rather than the shreddable texture we’re after. The multiple layers of foil will also stop water getting inside.
• Next, fill a pressure cooker with plenty of water (about 3/4 of the way fuland bring to a boil. Carefully drop your drumsticks into the cooker and put the lid on. Cook on a medium/high heat for 45 minutes. Once the time is up, switch off the heat and leave it to cool completely. If your pressure cooker is too small to hold all 10 drumsticks, you'll need to cook them in two batches. In any case, keep the cooking time the same.
• Once cool, remove the seitan drumsticks from the cooker and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 48 hours.
• Unwrap and check out that amazing texture when you pull it apart. Your seitan is now ready to marinate.
• To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients except the coconut yoghurt in a blender and blend until completely smooth.
• Transfer to a large bowl and stir the coconut yoghurt in. This will ensure the marinade doesn’t become too runny.
• Add the cold vegan chicken drumsticks and carefully coat each one in the marinade.
• Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. You can also prepare this 24 hours in advance.
• Heat a griddle pan until smoking hot. Place the vegan chicken drumsticks on the griddle pan and cook each side until you have charred grill marks all over. Serve with red onion rings and scatter with pomegranate seeds and more coriander.

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Firstly, I’d like to apologise to the French for this recipe. I can only imagine the kind of chaos an eggless banana and cardamom crème brûlée would cause. It’s not even the cool sort of chaos.

I’ve been working on this recipe for eggless crème brûlée for a while now and I think it’s about time I unveiled it before your hungry eyes. You’re probably thinking that this dish is notorious for being laced with eggs and that I’m a total nutcase for thinking otherwise. But trust me… It can be made beautifully without. Otherwise I wouldn’t be typing this right now.

Eggs add a certain richness to crème brûlée which I reinterpreted as ‘banana’. Cute. I mean that I replaced the eggs with pureed banana which adds a velvety texture to the custard, along with a subtle banana flavour. I added cornflour to act as a setting agent just as eggs help set the custard in a usual crème brûlée. So you don’t have to worry about your custard turning into scrambled eggs when making the custard for this dessert, due to the lack of… uhh… eggs.

Oh and surprise! Guess what? This is a 2 in 1 dessert, meaning you can make two desserts with the exact same custard base. Gripping, I know. So the ‘little extra’ refers to an alternative destiny for the creamy banana and cardamom custard. That is a recipe for Eggless Banana and Cardamom Ice Cream. Warning: This ice cream is immensely creamy. Are you sure your tastebuds can handle this kinda creamy? I’m not sure they can.

Eggless Banana and Cardamom Crème Brûlée
(makes 5-6)

Ingredients

600ml double cream
200ml whole milk
2½-3½ tbsps cornflour
250g banana, peeled and sliced
1 vanilla pod, scraped of its seeds (keep the pod)
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g caster sugar (plus more for caramelising)
¼ tsp cardamom powder
Yellow food colour (optional)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 120 degrees Celsius.

2. Place the milk, cornflour and banana slices in a blender and pulse until pureed.

3. In a large saucepan heat on a very low flame the double cream, banana puree, sugar, vanilla extract and the vanilla seeds along with the whole pod. Gently whisk this from time to time.

4. Once the mixture begins to thicken, whisk it more often to ensure it doesn’t settle at the bottom. Simmer gently until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

5. Remove from the heat and add take out the whole vanilla pod (wash it and dry it and add it to a jar of sugar, et voila… Vanilla sugar!) Add the cardamom powder and food colouring if using and mix thoroughly.

6. Boil the kettle. Not for a cuppa chai. For the bain marie (water bath).

7. Pour the mixture into ramekins about 2/3 of the way up.

8. Put the ramekins in a large roasting tray with high sides and place the tray in an oven. Pull the oven rack out and pour the boiled water into the tray (not into the ramekins) until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

9. Bake for around 45 minutes until the custards are just set but a little wobbly in the middle. Did I just say ‘wobbly’?

10. Remove the ramekins from the oven and take them out of the roasting tray (be very careful because they will be hot). If you’re making these ahead of time, at this point you can cover these and refrigerate them (and follow step 11 when you’re ready to serve). If you want to eat them straight away then follow step 11 now.

11. Top the custards with 1 level tsp of caster sugar and place them under the grill until they caramelise. If you’ve got a blowtorch, use it. Sadly I’m not equipped with one. Lame.

12. Carefully remove from the grill and serve hot.

Recipe 2: Eggless Banana and Cardamom Ice Cream

Ingredients

600ml double cream
200ml whole milk
3 ½ tbsp cornflour
250g banana, peeled and sliced
1 vanilla pod, scraped of its seeds (keep the pod)
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g caster sugar (plus more for caramelising)
¼ tsp cardamom powder
Yellow food colour (optional)

Method

1. Place the milk, cornflour and banana slices in a blender and pulse until pureed.

2. In a large saucepan heat on a very low flame the double cream, banana puree, sugar, vanilla extract and the vanilla seeds along with the whole pod. Gently whisk this from time to time.

3. Once the mixture begins to thicken, whisk it more often to ensure it doesn’t settle at the bottom. Simmer gently until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

4. Remove from the heat and add take out the whole vanilla pod (wash it and dry it and add it to a jar of sugar, et voila… Vanilla sugar!) Add the cardamom powder and food colouring if using and mix thoroughly.

5. Allow the mixture to cool and place it in a freezer-friendly container. Cover this with a lid and place in the freezer.

6. Every 30 minutes for the first two hours, remove the container from the freezer and whisk to break up any ice crystals that may have formed. After two hours leave the ice cream for around 3-4 hours for it to freeze completely.

Okay everyone, I give you permission to go bananas and have two desserts today!

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