Hariyali refers to the beautiful shamrock green colour of the marinade. My recipe puts a glut of coriander and mint to good use and the tandoori-style drumsticks pair perfectly with salad and freshly-made Indian flatbreads like naan, paratha and chapattis.
Prep Time1 hourhr
Cook Time1 hourhr10 minutesmins
Total Time2 hourshrs10 minutesmins
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: marinade, seitan, vegan
Servings: 4
Author: Sanjana
Ingredients
For the vegan “chicken drumsticks”:
300gextra-firm tofudrained
1 400gtin haricot beansinc. the liquid from the tin (you can also use any other white beans, such as cannellini beans or butter beans)
150gvital wheat glutenI buy mine on Amazon
150mlcold water
2tbspnutritional yeast
2tspwhite miso paste
1tbsplight soy sauce
1tspfine salt
3tbspsunflower or vegetable oil
You will also need:
10flat wooden lollipop sticks
Kitchen foil
For the hariyali paste:
120gfresh coriander
50gfresh mint
2thin green chillies
3tbspcoconut yoghurt
8-10cashews
1-inchpiece ginger
2clovesgarlic
1tbspsunflower oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1tspsalt
2tspagave nectar
Instructions
In a blender, combine the tofu, haricot beans in their liquid, miso paste, soy sauce, salt, nutritional yeast, oil and water until you have a smooth paste.
Add the vital wheat gluten to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the tofu mixture and mix on a low speed until the two come together in the form of a dough.
Switch the paddle attachment to a dough hook and mix on a medium/high speed for 10-12 minutes. Stay close by as the mixer may shuffle across the counter top as the dough is tough to work. You’ll also need to be very careful your mixer’s motor doesn’t burn out. This kneading of the dough is crucial in developing the gluten and proteins in the seitan and shouldn’t be skipped. The longer and harder you work it, the more fibrous and chicken-like the final product will be. I wouldn’t recommend doing it by hand as your arms might threaten to fall off. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger would struggle, seriously. Having said this, you can create seitan kneading by hand - it will not however, have a shreddable, “pulled” quality and you’ll finish up with a spongy end product instead. It’ll still taste good but probably won’t fool your meat-eating friends.
Once your seitan has been kneaded long and hard, remove it from the mixer and divide it into 10 equal pieces. Wrap each piece around a wooden lollipop stick into a drumstick-like shape. Next, wrap each “drumstick” very tightly in 2-3 layers of heavy-duty foil, trying to maintain the shape as well as possible. You want it to be nice and compact inside to stop it expanding inside as this will promote sponginess rather than the shreddable texture we’re after. The multiple layers of foil will also stop water getting inside.
Next, fill a pressure cooker with plenty of water (about 3/4 of the way fuland bring to a boil. Carefully drop your drumsticks into the cooker and put the lid on. Cook on a medium/high heat for 45 minutes. Once the time is up, switch off the heat and leave it to cool completely. If your pressure cooker is too small to hold all 10 drumsticks, you'll need to cook them in two batches. In any case, keep the cooking time the same.
Once cool, remove the seitan drumsticks from the cooker and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 48 hours.
Unwrap and check out that amazing texture when you pull it apart. Your seitan is now ready to marinate.
To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients except the coconut yoghurt in a blender and blend until completely smooth.
Transfer to a large bowl and stir the coconut yoghurt in. This will ensure the marinade doesn’t become too runny.
Add the cold vegan chicken drumsticks and carefully coat each one in the marinade.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. You can also prepare this 24 hours in advance.
Heat a griddle pan until smoking hot. Place the vegan chicken drumsticks on the griddle pan and cook each side until you have charred grill marks all over. Serve with red onion rings and scatter with pomegranate seeds and more coriander.