I remember a time when my clothes would carry a light burned smoky coal scent and a time when garlic butter flavors would be omnipresent. It was a great and busy period in our life but even then there were days that seemed never ending, yet we loved it! Aromatic Chicken pieces were taking a bath of a spicy flavorful curd marination, the freshly elastic nan dough was resting near the heat and the oven, the ever so hot Indian Tandoor oven filled with burning coal and most of the time with Tandoori Chicken, Tikka, kebabs and crispy nans. But you know I like to be out of the norm so sometimes the oven would be filled with something less traditional such as my favorite vegetarian Tikka.
We used to run a Restaurant and our most precious dishes were the popular Tandoor baked chicken Tandoori, Tikka and Flat bread Nans. I could eat that stuff every day, that good it was and of course the amount of customers coming back every day just confirmed my taste addiction. Our Tandoori chicken was different to the one you might know in the Western world or the real traditional North Indian Punjabhi Tandoori chicken.
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It was perfected for the multicultural needs of Goa. Still wanted and much enjoyed by all Domestic visitors but also sought after by the foreign visitors and of course the Goan locals. Juicy, spicy and perfectly cooked inside. Buttery garlic flavors on the crispy outside. It couldn’t have been any better and until today’s day we have never encountered a restaurant that served such a wonderfully, brilliant cooked Tandoori chicken in Goa.
The flat bread nan was a staple food and I couldn’t live a day without them, my blood was nan-izised! Butter Nan, Butter Garlic Nan, Cheese Butter Garlic Nan, you name it. I even ended up creating a salad nan version. But besides the whole lots of boneless Chicken Tikka, Tandoori Chicken, Kebabs and nans, we had came across another brilliant tandoori dish and all that rather accidentally.
My husband had discovered those Soya Balls in the market, our cook had seen them before so he had an idea that the soya balls needed to be soaked. We were a creative lot of young chefs and we needed a vegetarian tandoori dish for the Indians that followed a stricter food diet, so after soaking we squeezed the balls, added them to the curd marination, left them there to soak in the flavors, took them out, added them to the skewers and baked them for a while in the Indian Tandoor oven. The Vegetarian Tikka Soya was born and it was an instant hit.
At the beginning we thought we would try to fool some friends. We gave them to try the Vegetarian Tikka with Soya and they proclaimed that these were really amazing tasting small chicken balls. Yes, they thought it was chicken and time again others proclaimed the same. You would eat a dozen with some shredded onion veggie salad and a cheese butter garlic nan and you would be satisfied. Also they were cheaper then chicken, so we had a tandoori item in our menu that didn’t cost more then 60 INR (~1 €) and that was indeed very pricy for Tandoori in Goa, India.
Soon our Soya Tikka balls became legendary and it became our signature vegetarian dish and everybody knew where one could get them on the Goan coastline. Many other small Tandoori Take aways tried to copy the idea but they never succeeded. Either the taste was wrong or it wasn’t properly cooked. Any Tandoori dish, that might be chicken or vegetarian needs to be carefully nurtured with a good amount of melted garlic butter, so to achieve a crispy outside. Of course there are other things that need to be considered too such as the amount of curd and spices and of course one should always work with quality ingredients.
- 40 Soya Balls
- 1½ Tabespoons fresh chopped Coriander leafs
- 1 small Lemon
- 1 Teaspoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1½ Teaspoons Turmeric Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Chilli Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Kitchen King
- 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1½ Teaspoon Chaat Masala
- 1 Tablespoon Tandoori Masala
- a small dash of White Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Oil
- pinch Salt
- pinch Pepper
- red/orange Food Coloring
- 4 Tablespoons Yogurt
- Butter
- a few cloves chopped Garlic
- In a bowl add the Soya balls and cover them with water. Allow them to soak in the water, leave them standing for minimum 1 hour. After that take out your soy balls and squeeze them so that all the liquids come out.
- Place the Soy balls into a mixing bowl and all the ingredients mentioned in the ingredients list starting with the freshly chopped coriander leafs and ending with the spoonfuls of fresh yogurt. Mix the whole content well and place and cover your soya balls with the tandoori marination. Leave them to stand for minimum 2 hours so that all the flavors can get sucked into the soya balls.
- After 2 hours and just before cooking preheat your oven to 220 Celsius.
- In a bowl add some butter and chopped Garlic and heat up and melt the butter. The garlic flavors will infuse into the melted butter. Keep aside.
- Grab your wooden skewers and wet them before you start adding your marinated soy balls. Add all the soy balls on the skewers, about 8 balls on each skewer. Place them into the preheated very hot oven and cook them first for 3-5 minutes or until you can see that they are getting dry in the oven. Take them out and brush them with a good load of melted butter garlic.
- Place them back into the oven and cook for another 5 minutes. Take out again and repeat your butter brushing every time you see your soya balls getting too dry and again place them back into the oven for another last 5 minutes.
- So your soya ball should be cooking in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes all together and you need to brush them with butter frequently so that they stay nice and moist which in turn promotes a crisp outside. The Soy Balls are ready when they have turned a bit dark or black.
- Serve hot!
The Indian Tandoor oven is an age old invention that mostly originated in the Punjabi/Pakistani area. Tandoori Clay ovens have mushroomed all over India and even in the Western world. Yet, often instead of clay you will discover that Restaurants use a big metal can like things in which they cook the chicken, which by the way doesn’t make sense since the chicken won’t get properly smoked and the temperatures don’t reach that constant high heat that is needed to cook a perfect tandoori chicken. Of course you can still cook Tandoori dishes in home ovens but you won’t get the so much wanted coal smoked flavors in the dish.
For a while I thought that Tandoori ovens were called Bhati, in fact we all called it like this here. No idea how it came to that, I am just the foreign gora who copied the Punjabi cook’s words. He also used to call a plastic jar dhaba, which I realized later on was his word for Tupperware.
A Tandoori oven is always hot or at least warm, even during the night time and day and here in Goa locals do not own a Tandoori oven in their houses. Tandoori and Nans are mostly only sold after 5 pm and we would always add a little salad as side for free. We had some big orders in our time with 50 Tandoori Chickens for 1 order or a whole box of freshly baked Nans. Of course those orders had to be preordered so that we could organize ourselves accordingly. The busiest time was always New Year and we even used to open in the rainy season, which by the way wasn’t always easy with the massive amount of humidity in the air. However the heavy rainy season enabled us to attract customers since nothing else is ever open during the monsoon and I have to say when I smell Tandoori nowadays I will always remember the humid rainy conditions and the hot comforting tandoori oven warming my hands.
Here you can see our Tandoori oven above. Of course the picture isn’t the best but it’s alright. You can see that this is the working space of a Tandoor cook and the oven is covered. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the oven from inside. Otherwise I would have been able to show you how the nan used to stick and bake on the inside borders of the Tandoori oven. The coal would be super hot burning and the chicken tandoori skewers would be held down and taken out of the oven frequently for a butter wash before giving them some more time to perfection. The working space usually always has some garlic butter around, some flour for the nan “workout” and the chicken hanging somewhere on top so that customers could choose theirs as you can see.
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lovely recipe!! I would love this as I am a vegetarian
yes I think so too that it is a dish designed for you Anita. Nice to hear from you again!
Really interesting post! I love all the details about your restaurant and the items you made. This soya balls are brilliant! I’ve never heard of these, but I’m going to have to look for them – I have some vegetarian friends who’d love these! And I’d love them too. Exceptional post – thank you.
They should be available in the US for sure. They call them soya balls here, maybe they might be named differently as well. Thank you for your compliment, I hope the post was educational. =)
Great post about vetarian tikka indian tandoor. I love tandoor but have always been intimidated by it. But you’ve just inspired me with an easy way via veggies. Thanks for sharing, Helene!
It can be intimidating at the beginning but if you nurture your tandoori with garlic butter and if you use high heat then you can easily achieve a perfect tandoori. Now in this case those or soya balls and they are much easier to handle then chicken because chicken meat needs extra care, so soya tandoori is a great start when you want to learn to make your own tandoori at home.
Helene, you have your own tandoori oven??? I am in awe! The skewers look excellent and remind me of a short period when as a teenager I was vegetarian for a year. I used to cook very similar cubes made of soy and if simmered in a thick sauce, they tasted close to meat… Your skewered soy balls look of course much better, especially if served with naans… (Garlic naans are the only carbs I order in Indian restaurants and they are so addictive, I have never made them because I would simply eat the whole batch on my own).
We used to have our own oven. It was build for the restaurant in 2008 and we took it down 2012 because we changed the restaurant and partnered for a new project. =) Anyway these ovens need to be taken down after a few years and a new one has to be added and then usually you build walls around it, fill it with glass and any isolating material and add a working platform on top, of course keeping in mind that the tandoor needs an opening on top and one whole down at the side for air and cleaning out. Funny sissi because I was a vegetarian for a year or so too. lol It didn’t suit me at the end. thank you and I agree they go very well with nans. =)
Wow! This post is so impressive on so many levels, Helene. First of all, thank you for the foreigner’s intro to the world of authentic tandori ovens. Thank you too for sharing your coveted recipe. Last and not least, I appreciate your sharing about your adventures as a successful restauranteur!
So happy to hear that my knowledge is interesting to others and that it might come helpful in the future. The recipe is for sure unique, hopefully you ll get a chance to find those soya balls in your near so you could give it a try in your home oven. =)
Mmmmm….what a flavorful vegetarian dish! Beautiful, too, Helene!
indeed flavorful Liz =)
You are a tandoori genius my friend, how lucky to own the oven 😀
I am salivating in front of my screen and would love to try this recipe one day!
Cheers
CCU
yeah we were lucky at the time, I miss my tandoori oven.
Heyy…how are you doing Helena?? Still in India? Been long since i dropped by here. Lots have been going on behind the scenes of my food blog Prats Corner which is now Prathi Ruchi 🙂
And coming to the post, your description of soya tandoori makes me want to try them out this instant. Nice photographs too..Simply too very tempting!!!!!
yeah of course still here =P
Give it a try and let me know if you have any questions, they are basically like chicken tikka but easier to handle. just keep in mind to butter them frequently so that they stay nice and moist!
Hi Helene, I can’t believe you have your own tandoori oven… how cool is that? I once saw a cooking show about a Swedish chef learning to make traditional naan bread in a tandoori oven from some Indian chefs. He said the heat from the oven was almost too much to bear. When the bread was put into the oven he said he really felt like it was going to melt the flesh from his hand, lol!
Those little tandoori balls look so nice – the colour is so rich!
Used to have an own tandoori =) I explained above to sissis comment what happened. Yeah you are right the heat is so much that the tandoori cooks in goa drink to bare the heat. That was our cooks problem…
The heat is at 400 C. double the amount of a regular oven. Burns are part of the job and to make the perfect tandoori chicken is very very difficult. That is why it’s nearly impossible to find good cooks. The very good once work in well payed and well known hotels. Tandoori is an art and one of the most difficult dishes in this world I believe.
In my entire life in India, I NEVER saw anyone who had THAT kind of a tandoor at their disposal. That’s like a dream come true…you could make a fortune alone building those up for people who love t make their own tandoor. I love the soy tikka idea…never occured to me but now that I think of it, makes perfect sense. Bookmarking.
I feel kinda in awe that you’re sharing this one with us! I have never seen soya balls for sale over here (UK) but will take a look in the Asian foodstore next time I’m in there.
Janie x
You take your tandoori cooking very seriously! I love it! And such a vibrant red color!
I love the idea of soya tandoori. We often cook soya chunks at home and I will have to try your tandoori recipe out. Looks so good.
Yes, many people do get fooled when they eat soya, they feel it’s chicken because the good thing is that soya really absorbs any flavor you put in it. Almost like a sponge.
Thanks for sharing!
Exactly spong is the correct word and when cooking it tandoor it soaks in super well better then a chicken =D
Hey Helene, you have a wonderful blog!! I just got here from Kiran’s page and I am so glad I came 🙂 This kabab looks absolutely delicious, I always go to restaurants and look at the kabab menu. I am always disappointed to see a lonely paneer tikka and end up ordering that. We love soya nuggets and I am sure tjis is a killer recipe, will definetly try this andlet you know. Looking forward to discovering many more fusion recipes on your page. Good luck!!
lol you are too sweet Ambika. You got a point with the lonely paneer tikka, I always felt the same way. Sometimes I did see some mushroom tikkas in some restaurants but that’s mostly about it. Yeah try it out, it’s completely worth it! Keep in mind to nurture the tikka with garlic butter or it gets too dry. The butter gives it a bit of a crisp on the outside when baking on high heat. =) Have fun!
Lovely post and a fantastic recipe, Helene! Great picture of the workspace too!
Thank you dear Azlin =D
What a clever idea to make soya balls on the tandoor! They’d be sure to please vegetarians and omnivores 😀
What would I do to have a tandoor oven in my backyard!! Yummy vegetarian tikka recipe, Helene. I need to try this with soy chunks 🙂
hey that’s actually not a bad idea and you guys have long summer months there in florida no? Why don’t you build one Kiran.
A very unique dish..I have never had soya balls…and on the tandoor sound and look really tempting.
Thank you so much Angie =)
Simply Awesome….delicious vegetarian Soya Tikkas. These are giving a tough competition to non-veg tikkas. Bookmarked on pinterest.
What a great post Helene! It’s always fascinating learning more about fellow bloggers. I love Tikka but have never tasted it with soya. Wonder if they have those here? Thanks for sharing.
I never would have guessed that these were soy balls! I can see why they were your signature dish. Sound and look delicious! Very clever of you to create this in the first place. Glad to see you solved your Internet problems!
Helene this is really amazing. I wish I could come share a meal like this with you. Stunning photos.
You never cease to amaze me Helene! You ran a restaurant, it had a signature dish. You’re sharing a secret recipe??? Oh my, educational and mouth watering too, what a terrific post!!! I’ll be on the look-out for Soya Balls, I think I’ve actually seen them locally. And, I am so saving this recipe!!!
Thank you so much for sharing, Helene…
I’ve only seen these ovens on tv.. and wished I had one 🙂
Helene, I don’t know where I can get the soya balls from but I want them for dinner right now 🙁 Can I use something else? or do you have a recipe for soy balls? 😉
Your post made me drool. All those tikkas and naans remind me of scrumptious street food at Delhi.
Soya tikka is indeed a very clever idea. I m sure it must have tasted great. I love soya as chunks and granules and this recipe shall definitely be tried in my kitchen soon. Thanks for sharing.
Soya as granules. I hadn’t seen those before. You get them in Delhi? I want too =D
Thank you so much for your kind words.
i wish i had a tandoor. everyday i would be making just tandoori snacks and garlic naan 🙂 in goa, i remember there was beach shack, that would serve awesome garlic naan and garlic cheese nan. i would love to make this recipe with some mushrooms or aubergines or a mix of different veggies.
Just to look at all these wonderful spices is a pleasure.
Love your vegetarian tandoori recipe, it looks so tasty and full of flavor!
You have no clue how fabulous that idea is. I use those for so many other things but have never used it this way…Genius you are.
Those Tandoori soya chunks look out of this world. It’s inspiring, amazing and jawdropping good at the same time. Fantastic post.
Hi dear,
I am first time here. I am in love with these small tempting balls. I do make theses soya balls at home but not this way. Now i am going to try it very soon.
Looks so delicious.. am going to try this out for sure. Thank you for sharing this wonderful creation.. :))