Vegetarians have a tough time when it comes to main courses, as they have limited choices. If you are looking for a unique vegetarian gravy, party & kids friendly, you have come to the right destination. It’s unique in it’s own way as it gives an uncanny resemblance to eggs. You will relish these veg eggs, absolutely guilt-free.
I can feel how intrigued you are, i’ll stop beating around the bush. Here, we make vegetarian eggs with potatoes and paneer. Boil the potatoes and mash it with some spices. This forms your egg white. Then run the paneer cubes with Saffron milk (saffron soaked in a tsp of hot milk) in a blender, this forms the egg yolk. Roll lemon sized balls of potato and stuff this paneer, seal it. Gently, with your fingers try to bring the oblong shape of an egg, tapering on one side. Then coat with bread crumbs and deep fry. Once you cut the fried potato vertically, you’ll be able to see similar shape of an egg. Saffron infused paneer matches the exact colour of egg yolk. From nutrition point of view, both are alike as they are good source of protein.
This recipe is a bit different, deviating from a regular paneer based gravy. I’m sure this recipe will become part of your party menu to surprise your guests. Especially your target to please the kids will be fulfilled.
This paneer stuffed potato egg gravy, (I’ll abbreviate it as PSPEG…😉) can be served with Jeera rice, Turmeric rice, naan, Palak / spinach puri…….basically with any Indian breads and rice. Even with South Indian idlis and dosas.
Don’t forget to scroll down to the notes, you’ll have a bonus recipe under my Kitchen Secrets. My kitchen secret saves you when you are puzzled with leftovers. Every recipe in this blog has a surprise package in the kitchen secret which will definitely make you awestruck…😲. You’ll visualize how each leftover of that recipe transforms into an unimaginable dish, unleash your creativity and explore beyond limits.
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Steam the potatoes in a pressure cooker or steamer, peel it and mash it. Finely chop the garlic, ginger and one small green chilli into tiny piece and grind this in a small jar which yields a tsp of paste. Mix this paste with 2 cups of mashed potatoes and add salt. This forms the base of vegetarian egg white.
Soak a pinch of Saffron in hot milk to infuse the colour.
Run the paneer in the jar with Saffron milk, this becomes the base for egg yolk. Roll small marble sized balls from the paneer.
Roll balls from potato, 2 times the size of paneer.
Now make a hollow in the center of the potato ball.
Stuff the paneer ball inside.
And gently seal the potato ball by pulling from sides
Roll the ball again and shape it with your fingers to resemble the shape of an egg.
Coat the potato eggs in the bread crumb thoroughly on all sides.
Similarly do the same with the rest of potatoes and paneer balls, refrigerate the eggs for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.
Dry roast the grated coconut in a pan till it becomes golden brown, keep it aside. For the gravy masala, heat oil in a pan, add cinnamon, cloves , black pepper, fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, sauté for 2 -3 minutes, then add coriander seeds,
Then add chopped onion, sauté well with a tsp of salt till it turns brown.Then add chopped tomatoes, sauté till it turns mushy.
Later add roasted coconut to it ,
Finally add the chilli powder and switch off the flame.
Let it cool down and then grind it as a smooth, fine paste.
Heat oil and ghee in a pan, immediately add the ground masala, a cup of water, tsp sugar and salt if required,
Stir it in medium flame and immediately close the lid as the gravy may splutter all around (due to tomato in it).
After few minutes, check the consistency, it should neither be too thick nor too thin, once the desired consistency reached, crush a tbsp of dry methi leaves (kasuri methi), let it boil for another 2 minutes and switch off the flame.
Meanwhile heat oil in a thick bottomed pan or kadai, once the temperature is perfect (when u drop a small crumb in the oil, it should raise immediately from the bottom), deep fry the balls in small batches of 2 or 3 (strictly not more than that, refer notes).
Slice the potato eggs into half vertically, you’ll vision the vegetarian egg where the paneer duplicate the egg yolk and potato bear resemblance to the egg white.
Drop the sliced halves in the gravy during the time of serving, or otherwise the fried potato eggs turns soggy. Relish this unique gravy with Rotis, Naan or Jeera rice, turmeric rice.
Recipe Card
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 – 40 minutes
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Curries
Serves: 4
Author: Manimala
Ingredients:
For Veg egg:
To make egg white:
Potatoes, boiled, mashed – 2 cups
Ginger, garlic, green chilli paste – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
For egg yolk:
Paneer, mashed – 1 cup
Saffron soaked in a tsp of milk
For coating:
Breadcrumbs – required quantity
Oil – to deep fry
For Gravy masala:
Cinnamon- 1 inch
Cloves – 3
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Peppercorns – 5
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Onion chopped – 2 cups
Tomato chopped – 1 cup
Ginger chopped – 1 ½ tsp
Garlic chopped – 1 ½ tsp
Grated coconut, roasted – ½ cup
Kashmiri chilli powder – 1 ½ tsp
Oil – 2 tbsps
For Gravy base:
Oil – 2 tbsps
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Gravy masala – grounded
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 1 tsp
Fenugreek leaves / kasuri methi leaves – 1 tbsp
Instructions:
- Steam the potatoes in pressure cooker or steamer, peel and mash it.
- Finely chop a garlic , tiny piece of ginger and one small green chilli, grind this in a small jar which yields a tsp of paste ( of ginger, garlic, green chilli).
- Mix this paste with 2 cups of mashed potatoes with required salt, this forms the base of vegetarian egg white.
- Soak a pinch of Saffron in hot milk, press the Saffron in the milk with your fingers to infuse the color.
- Run the paneer in the jar with Saffron milk. Transfer to a bowl, this becomes the base for egg yolk.
- Roll small marble sized balls from paneer. Roll balls from potato, 2 times the size of paneer.
- Now make a hollow in the center of the potato ball, stuff the paneer ball inside and gently seal the potato ball by pulling from sides. Roll the ball again and shape it with your fingers to resemble the shape of an egg.
- Coat the potato eggs in the bread crumb thoroughly on all sides. Similarly do the same with the rest of potatoes and paneer balls, refrigerate the eggs for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.
- Dry roast the grated coconut in a pan till it becomes golden brown, keep it aside.
- For the gravy masala, heat oil in a pan, add cinnamon, cloves , black pepper, fennel seeds, ginger, garlic, sauté for 2 -3 minutes, then add coriander seeds, then chopped onion, sauté well with a tsp of salt till it turns brown.
- Then add chopped tomatoes, sauté till it turns mushy. Later add roasted coconut to it , finally add the chilli powder and switch off the flame.
- Let it cool down and then grind it as a smooth, fine paste.
- Heat oil and ghee in a pan, immediately add the ground masala, a cup of water, tsp sugar and salt if required, stir it in medium flame and immediately close the lid as the gravy may splutter all around (due to tomato in it).
- After few minutes, check the consistency, it should neither be too thick nor too thin, once the desired consistency reached, crush a tbsp of dry methi leaves (kasuri methi), let it boil for another 2 minutes and switch off the flame.
- Meanwhile heat oil in a thick bottomed pan or kadai, once the temperature is perfect (when u drop a small crumb in the oil, it should raise immediately from the bottom), deep fry the balls in small batches of 2 or 3 (strictly not more than that, refer notes).
- Slice the potato eggs into half vertically, you’ll vision the vegetarian egg where the paneer duplicate the egg yolk and potato bear resemblance to the egg white.
- Drop the sliced halves in the gravy during the time of serving, or otherwise the fried potato eggs turns soggy. Relish this unique gravy with Palak / spinach puri, Rotis, Naan or Jeera rice, Turmeric rice.
Notes:
- You can prepare the paneer stuffed potato eggs 🥚🥚 a day before and refrigerate. It has 2 benefits,
- You save time the day you prepare the gravy
- Eggs stay intact and hold shapes, which prevents disintegrating while you are frying.
- NEVER OVERCROWD potato eggs while frying, you can drop maximum 2-3 potato eggs at a time. It’s a thumb rule for any starter to not overcrowd, always fry in small batches with 2 or 3 pieces in each batch. It prevents break down of the stuff.
- You can add turmeric powder in the place of Saffron milk to paneer to get the yolk colour, but in little quantity. As turmeric shouldn’t overpower the taste of the paneer due to it’s pungent earthy flavor.
- For Roasted coconut, I used fresh grated coconut. It can be replaced with dry coconut or desiccated coconut powder but roasting has to be done.
- Consistency of the gravy can be adjusted according to your requirement.
- Kasuri methi / dry Fenugreek leaves is optional, but it imparts a pleasant aroma and taste to the gravy. For long shelf life, you can store these leaves in refrigerator.
- Always add the fried potato eggs to the gravy only at the time of serving. It’ll become stodgy if you add it long before serving.
Now time for my Kitchen Secrets…😉😍
I assure there are fade chances of gravy or fried potato eggs to be leftover. As your family would have relished the feast, I wonder if there is any leftover with you…🤔😆😋
There are chances you’ll be left with paneer stuffing as the size of the stuffing vary with individual. Here I come up with another out of the box dish from the paneer leftover. I’m transforming this Indian paneer to Italian Arancini balls with a twist of paneer in the place of cheese, an art of fusion. I coined the term Indian Arancini Balls for this recipe, you may raise your brows with the sound of the term and the surprise will continue after you try this recipe as well…🤨🤨🤨😮