From the Kitchen
High-Protein Malai Kofta
The restaurant showpiece, rebuilt at both ends — the kofta are blended tofu and sweet potato out of the air fryer instead of the deep fryer, and the malai is a whole tub of cottage cheese blended raw with onion and whole spices. About 35 g of protein a serving.
No cream, no khoya, no deep frying — and nothing in it tastes like a substitute.
It will look split — a couple of minutes after the gravy hits the pan it goes grainy and separated, and it looks like the whole thing has curdled. It hasn't. That's the raw onion still cooking. Keep it moving over the heat and it pulls back together into something smooth on its own — that moment is what tells you the gravy is done.
Ingredients
The kofta
- Sweet potato, boiledboiled until a knife slides through 300 g
- Extra firm tofusqueezed dry — see step two 300 g
- Salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- Onion powder 1 tsp
- Garlic powder 1 tsp
- Cornstarchonly if the mix is too wet 1–2 tbsp
- Oil, for brushingjust enough to catch color a little
Into the blender
- Cottage cheese, small curd, 4%this is the malai 500 g
- Red onion 1 1/2
- Ginger 1 big chunk
- Garlic 5–6 cloves
- Jeera (cumin seeds) 1 tbsp
- Whole cloves 4
- Green cardamom podsoptional 2 small
- Black peppercorns 4
- Cinnamon stick 1 inch
Into the pan
- Oil 1/2 tbsp
- Dried red chilies 2–3
- Bay leaves 1–2
- Turmericvery little — for warmth, not color a pinch
- Salt to taste
Method
Part one — the kofta
- Boil the sweet potato — 300 g, until a knife goes through easily.
- Squeeze the tofu — get all the water out of it. All of it — press it in a clean towel and wring until nothing more comes. This is the step people skip, and it's the whole reason a kofta mix won't hold.
- Mix — squeezed tofu and boiled sweet potato into a food processor together with the salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Pulse it — don't just let it run. You want small blended pieces with texture still in them, not a smooth paste. Stop as soon as a pinch of it holds together when you press it. If it seems too wet, work in 1–2 tbsp cornstarch.
- Shape — make small balls, or patties if you'd rather. Pack each one tight and smooth over any cracks.
- Air fry or bake — brush them with a little bit of oil, then 20 minutes at 430°F, flipping in between — or until they look golden on both sides.
Part two — the gravy
- Blend everything — cottage cheese, red onion, ginger, garlic, jeera, cloves, peppercorns, the cinnamon stick, and the cardamom if you're using it. All of it, all at once. The onion and the whole spices go in raw — nothing gets fried first.
- Temper — 1/2 tbsp oil in a pan, then the dried red chilies and bay leaves. Sauté them just until they wake up.
- Cook the gravy — add the blended gravy and cook until it stops looking split. Give it the few minutes it needs; it goes grainy before it goes smooth.
- Season — salt, and very little turmeric.
- Serve — kofta in the bowl, gravy spooned over the top. Rice or roti alongside.
Notes
- About the protein and calories — the cottage cheese carries about 53 g of protein and the tofu about 43 g, with the sweet potato, onion, garlic, and jeera bringing the pan to roughly 105 g and 1,370 calories. Split three ways, that's about 35 g of protein and 455 calories a serving. Run on Trader Joe's 4% small curd cottage cheese (110 calories and 12 g per 1/2 cup) and Trader Joe's organic extra firm tofu (100 calories and 12 g per 84 g). Those two tubs are 90% of the protein here, so if you buy different ones they're the only labels worth reading — a super-firm tofu adds about 5 g a serving, and a 2% cottage cheese takes off about 40 calories.
- A classic kofta is mostly potato and paneer, deep fried. This one is half tofu by weight and baked, which is where the protein comes from and why the calories stay where they do.
- Wet is the only way this goes wrong — and over-processing is one of the ways it gets wet. Run the machine past the coarse stage and the tofu gives up its water into a slack paste that won't roll. Pulse, stop early, and leave the pieces visible. Squeeze the tofu properly first, and if the sweet potato held on to boiling water, let it steam dry a few minutes before it goes in. If it's still too loose to roll after all that, 1–2 tbsp of cornstarch takes it the rest of the way — about 15 calories a serving and no protein, so use it as the fix rather than the plan.
- Combine at the last minute. The kofta are soft-bound and they drink gravy, so spoon it over them in the bowl rather than letting them sit in the pan.
- The turmeric is a pinch and no more. This is a white gravy — enough turmeric to see it and you've made a different curry.
- Both halves keep separately — kofta up to 3 days in the fridge, gravy up to 4. Warm the kofta back up in the air fryer for a few minutes so they crisp again, reheat the gravy gently, and put them together at the table.