Here’s a creamy, delicious, almost incredibly exquisite curry made with an ingredient that may not be familiar to some of you: lotus seeds, or phool makhana. Lotus seeds are a wonderful treat and you can buy them at any Indian grocery store here in the United States. When I started to cook with them, I discovered they make a wonderful meat substitute. The seeds, dalmatian-like with a creamy color mottled with black specks, are puffy and light. You would usually cook them by frying or roasting them first in a little oil which makes them rather crispy and delicious and subtly flavorful– almost a wonderful snack in their own right. But an even more delicious treat is to dunk them in a spicy curry which changes their texture to slightly chewy. I use a paste of cashews to make the makhana curry creamy, but coconut milk would work too. Cashews are simply amazing in curries, even as the main ingredient (exhibit no. 1, this creamy, amazing cashew curry!) Check to get new recipe updates by email.
This makhana curry is a great recipe for winter– it’s healthy but you practically don’t need any fresh ingredients. Even the peas are frozen, and everything else came from the pantry.
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