You might also like these recipes for tofu makhani, tofu curry and vegan butter chicken. Onions. Gorgeous, golden, sweet onions. They add their deep, rich flavor to soups, sauces, gravies and then they recede to the background, letting the vegetables, the lentils, or the meat steal the show. Just how nice is that? But humble as they are, onions are, without a doubt, stars in their own right. I can come up with a substitute for nearly any other ingredient while cooking on the fly, but the one ingredient I will absolutely, positively, most definitely not replace in any recipe is the amazing onion. In fact, I’ve been known to send Desi flying to my neighbor Heather’s home to borrow an onion or two during a late-night cooking session. If you love onions as much as I do, you are going to love today’s recipe, because it is, literally, an ode to the onion. And it starts with the evocative name: Tofu Paneer Do Pyaza. Pyaaz is Hindi for onions, and Do Pyaza literally translates to “with twice the onions.” Indeed, there are plenty of onions in this recipe, and they’re used two different ways, once at the beginning and again at the end, creating twice the deliciousness. You start off by sauteing a puree of onions that adds an incredible, velvety richness to the gravy, and you end by adding lightly sauteed onions that contribute an extra something, that oomph, that nicely rounds out the dish without overwhelming you or your tastebuds. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
Most Do Pyaza dishes you’ll find at restaurants feature meat of some kind or the other, with mutton being the most common, followed by chicken. There are also versions with Paneer, and that’s what I set out to recreate, but the rich, complex sauce begs for something heftier and more textured than tofu – or paneer – is. So for my very vegan Do Pyaza, I bumped up the heft by baking the tofu to make it chewy, and by adding meaty, textured mushrooms. You could make the dish with just one or the other and you’d still have a winner on your hands. Or you could try this with seitan or tempeh, or one of those Gardein “meats.” I used two kinds of onions for the base puree– red onions, which are spicier than yellow or white, and shallots, with their garlicky sass. And I used yellow onions for the final flourish, because I wanted something sweeter and milder to finish off the creamy gravy. This, served with warm rotis, made a perfect Sunday night dinner at our home. And a healthy one too, with just 143 calories in each serving. Try it, if you are, like me, a true lover of this mighty allium. You’ll be crying – with joy – for sure.
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