Tandoori Vegetable tikka

Weekends are for experimenting and trying my hand at something new! These tandoori vegetable tikkas happened in my kitchen over the weekend and hubby and brother-in-law went crazy swooning over it. Manish always gets elated when I cook Indian dishes, especially the ones which cater to his palate.

Tikka more popularly famous as Paneer Tikka or Chicken Tikka is made from chunks of paneer, chicken or vegetables marinated in lush youghurt mixed with spices and then grilled in the oven to perfection. It is sprinkled with chaat maasala and lemon juice and thereafter served with coriander or mint chutney alongside some fresh crunchy salad. It can also be scooped into flatbreads and topped with salad and dip for a full meal.

Vegetable tikka gets its gorgeous bright orange colour from yoghurt based marinade. Dried red chillies are soaked in warm water and turned into a paste by adding ginger and garlic. This red paste is mixed in thick and creamy yoghurt along with some other spices to make the marinade. Chunks of vegetables are smothered in marinade and left to sit for couple of hours before getting grilled. Smoky flavour lent by grilling enhances the flavour of these succulent tikkas.

And might I mention that among all the vegetables that I have used in this recipe, mushrooms stand out the most. Earthy flavour of mushrooms get heightened because of grilling and coupled with this naturally bright orange marinade, they become just too delicious.

Spicy,tangy,creamy and smoky Vegetable Tikka -perfect appetizer/snack!

Type:Appetizer/Snack

Diet: vegetarian/gluten free

Serves: Makes about 20 skewers (enough for 6-8 people)

Ingredients

1 cup hung curd (atleast 4-6 hours)

2 Tbsp ginger garlic paste

4 kasmiri red chillies (soaked in hot water for 2 hours)

1/2 Tsp red chilli powder

1 green chili

salt to taste

1/4th tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp chaat masala

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 Tbsp oil
Wooden skewers

Vegetables

8-10 button mushrooms

8-10 cauliflower florets

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 chopped yellow bell pepper

1 chopped capsicum

2-3 chopped semi-boiled Potato

2-3 chopped medium red onion

Method

Add soaked dried red chilies, ginger-garlic paste, green chili and oil in a food processor and blend till you get a paste.

Add this paste in hung yoghurt along with red chili powder, salt, chaat masala, garam masala and lemon juice. Mix everything together.

Blanch cauliflower florets in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Strain all the water and keep aside.

Cut veggies into big chunks. Clean mushrooms and keep them whole.

Add vegetables in the marinade and gently mix together so that all the vegetables are coated properly. Let them stand for 2 hours in the marinade in refrigerator.

Remove marinated vegetables from refrigerator after 2 hours and bring to room temperature.

Pre heat oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes.

Skewer the vegetables on skewer in a colourful pattern and arrange on grill rack of the oven.

Bake in oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Turn them around half way.

Serve hot with coriander or mint chutney.

Notes

If you can't find skewers, use toothpicks.

If you don't have toothpicks, just line baking tray with foil and spread marinated veggies on it and bake.

You can grill the veggies directly on griddle/tawa/sandwich maker too which have grill marks.

Same marinade can be used for making panner tikka or chicken tikka.

Other veggies like broccoli, babycorn, zuchini and carrots can also be used.

Yoghurt should be strained for atleast 6 hours else there will be lot of water content in the marinade.

As veggies grill, some of the marinade drops on the base of oven. Make sure to line base of your OTG oven with aluminium foil to save yourself from cleaning it later.

If you try this recipe, do let me know! Take a picture, comment or tag me #fascinatingfoodworld on Instagram and #nishbes on Twitter.

Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook for regular updates on new recipes.

If you are looking more Indian based recipes, try these

Chana masala- Indian chickpea curry