The Lean Veggie - Baked tofu tikkas

If you want to eat the best paneer tikkas in Madras, you should try and go to the Boat club. They grill marinated paneer cubes with slices of onion, and serve with green cilantro chutney. These tikkas are a tad oily, but perfectly cooked - charred and crispy on the outside, spongy and chewy on the inside.

Even though paneer is readily available in many Indian grocery stores, the fat content seems excessive. So, I tried making tikkas with high protein extra firm tofu instead. They tasted almost as good. This recipe is really versatile. I served these by themselves, as a side dish one day. I also made mattar paneer and substituted the paneer with these baked tofu cubes. I'm sure these would taste great as a replacement for paneer in the classic palak paneer dish.

Method -

1) In a big bowl, whisk together all the below ingredients for the marinade -
3/4 cup yoghurt

1 tsp lemon juice

salt to taste

black pepper - 1/4 tsp

channa masala - 1 tsp

coriander cumin powder (dhania jeera masala) - 1 tbsp

red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

kasoori methi - 1 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

grated ginger - 1 tsp

garlic - 1 clove grated

finely chopped cilantro - 1 tbsp

turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

2) Chop up some extra firm tofu into cubes - roughly about 1 inch in length, 1 inch in width and 1/3 inch thickness. For this recipe, I used about 1.5 cups. Combine the tofu cubes with the marinade. Each cube should be fully coated. If you think there is excess marinade, chop up some more tofu

3) Cover bowl with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours

4) Preheat oven to 475 degrees

5) Take a sheet of aluminium foil, place over a baking sheet. Grease the aluminum foil well

6) Arrange the tofu cubes in a single layer on the foil. If you have excess marinade in the bowl, spoon a little on each tofu cube.

7) Bake for about 15 minutes. As you are baking at very high temperatures, make sure you keep an eye on the oven. After 15 minutes, check on the tofu. If the edges are already browned, remove them from the oven. Otherwise, bake for another 5 to 10 minutes. Do not let it bake for too long, otherwise the tofu gets tough

Baking times could vary depending on the type of tofu you use. The easiest way to check is to cool and sample a cube (and yea, try not to finish them all)