How to make tasty vegan curd fro Indian taste buds?

Recipes ( Non Dairy Alternatives)



By Dr. Rupa Shah, Director, Healin’ Temple.



Curd made with Peanuts and rice milk



⅓ cup raw whole rice soak for 8 hours in water.



⅔ cup raw peanuts soak for 8 hours in water



Throw away the water used for soaking. Now take fresh water for each, blend in blender separately. Water quantity can be 4 to 5 times the quantity of the material. If you take less water, it will be thicker milk. You need to strain and blend 3 times to get maximum milk. For rice, you can take less water. Make both the milk separately.



Now boil peanut milk on slow flame. Gradually add rice milk, one spoonful at a time and stir gently each time. Boil this for about 10 minutes. Milk will thicken.



This will make about 1 litre of milk. Let it cool to lukewarm level.Now it is ready for adding the culture. About 1 tablespoon of curd ( initially you can use a ready culture tablet bought from shop, or plain vegan yogurt or 5 to 6 tops of green chilies or rejuvelac) will be enough for this. Leave it outside , covered, for 8 hours. After 8 hours in hot climate and may be 12 to 15 hours in cold climate, you have the curd ready. For next batch, use culture from this curd now. Initial few batches may be a bit watery. But after 4 to 5 times, you get thicker curd from the same culture.



Upto one week, it can be stored in refrigerator.



I usually store about 5 table spoon of curd in my deep fridge for future use, incase I go out of town or my earlier batch goes bad or I ate all and forgot to save for next batch. This comes in handy.



Now you can use this curd in following ways.



1. Curd eaten as it is.



2. Gujarati Kadhi



3. Raita



4. Chaas Add salt, and crushed cumin seeds



5. Sweet Lan make Paneer from this curd by hanging curd in muslin cloth for 3 hours.



6. Make Dahi rice ( Also known as famous south indian Curd rice)



7. Mango lassi or any other fruits



8. Add in veggies like Dahi Bhindi( ladies finger), Aloo ( Potato) , Baigan( brinjal)



9. Mung beans and other sprouts , add .



10. Dahi Chaat ( Curd with onions, tomatoes, potatoes and some indian spices)



11. Dahi vada



12. Make curd dip



13. Fruit yogurt



14. Tadka yogurt



15. Dahi in dholka, Handvo, Muthia, Chila, Upma and thepla