Tandoori Curry Puff: Veg Puff Recipe (2024)

Veg Puff Recipe for Tandoori Curry Puff - buttery flaky puff pastry stuffed with goodness of tandoori flavored mix vegetable curry, then baked to a golden perfection. Simple, but SO GOOD!!!

These curry puff when stuffed with freshly homemade tandoori masala curry adds enough “oohs” and “ahhs” around your dining table. This tandoori masala curry has got all of my family and everyone else’s favorite flavors, who can deny on paneer and vegetables when flavored with tandoori masala. These little curry cuff are ridiculously delicious, simple to make and great to share as a snack, on apicnic, or as appetizer at your next gathering!!!

There is so much nostalgia involved when talking about Indian style veg puff pastry. The classic Indian puff pastry popular as patties is well known throughout the country. When I bite into these curry puff, it takes me right back to my younger days growing up in India.

Traditionally, in India these vegetarian curry puffs are stuffed with a mixture of boiled potatoes, peas sometimes paneer which is then cooked with Indian spices. Back in those days, I never ever imagined that these curry puffs can be easily made at home. For me these used to be bakery specialty and can’t be created at home.

What is Puff Pastry?

After moving to USA and finding the frozen puff pastry sheets was very similar to hitting a jackpot for myself. I exactly don’t remember how I figured out that frozen puff pastry sheets can be used to make our favorite Indian Alu and paneer patties, but however it was, it was definitely rewarding.

Puff pastry is a light and flaky French pastry made from a dough by laminating butter into dough. Making puff pastry from scratch is time consuming and a bit messy process. It involves wrapping a cold block of butter in dough, rolling it out, folding it over, and repeating this rolling and folding process until you're left with hundreds of layers of pastry dough. Not to mention, the dough needs to be chilled between each turn of rolling and folding, make the process a bit cumbersome and lengthy.

So, lets keep the detailed process of making home-made puff pastry for another post and move ahead with store bought frozen premade puff pastry. Store-bought puff pastry is a lifesaver in the kitchen. Whether you make it from scratch or you use the store-bought, the result is a light, buttery and flaky puff pastry with a slight crisp to it. You can use your favorite brand or Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry for perfect results every time.

Filling options for Veg Puff Recipe

The most popular and easy Indian veg filling you will find is potatoes and peas, and called as “Alu Patties”. Since, I like to try and experiment with different flavors. I try to use different veg filling every time I make these for my family. I have tried quite a few different stuffing for veg puff recipe versions in past.

Last time, I tried the veg puff recipe with corn, peas and paneer filling for my elder one’s outdoor birthday party snack boxes. I was totally surprised by the compleiments from kids or moms for my curry puffs.

As I said, I like to work with different flavors rather then making them again with same filling. This time I wanted to incorporate the tandoori flavors in the stuffing in my veg puff recipe. To incorporate tandoori flavors, I made tandoori vegetable curry, which turned out delicious enough to enjoy as a side with parathas, rotis or naan.

How to make Tandoori Vegetable Curry for Veg Puff Recipe

When you hear Tandoor the first thing that comes to mind is clay oven almost like a large clay pit, large enough to hold a fire created by slow burning wood or charcoal, similar to charcoal grill but enclosed. Then marinated meats, vegetables are lowered into the oven on long metal skewers and cooked in this smoky and extremely hot “pit” until they are grilled to perfection.

Don’t worry, you don’t need any tandoor to make this flavorful tandoori vegetable curry. To create tandoori flavors, we would need this aromatic spice blend known as “Tandoori Masala”. I am also sharing the recipe of making homemade tandoori masala, but feel free to use store bought Tandoori Masala which is easily available at all Indian grocery stores. No doubt, there is no comparison of flavors when using homemade tandoori Masala.

To make this Tandoori vegetable curry I have used onions, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, bell pepper and paneer. You can always play around with your choice of vegetable to make tandoori vegetable curry.

Important Tips Tandoori Curry used in this Veg Puff Recipe:

1. To marinate vegetables, we would need really thick yogurt without any or very minimal whey. You can use Greek yogurt or strained yogurt to prepare marinade. If you don’t have Greek yogurt you can strain regular yogurt using a sieve. Keep yogurt overnight in the sieve to get rid of most of the whey.
2. Since we are going to cook the vegetable along with yogurt marinade, that’s why we need to make sure that there should be no to minimal whey. Otherwise while cooking, yogurt will release lot of water and vegetables take too long to cook.
3. You can make this tandoori curry in advance to divide the prep work. Well-cooked Tandoori Vegetable curry can stay well in refrigerator for up to a week without any change in texture or flavor.
4. Leftover curry can be freeze for later use.
5. For best tandoori flavor, I would recommend to use homemade tandoori masala, which can also be made in advance in large quantity for convenience purpose.
6. Mustard oil enhances the flavors of tandoori vegetable curry, but absence of it should not stop you to make tandoori curry. Use what’s available in your pantry.

Homemade Tandoori Masala Recipe for this veg puff recipe

I prefer to make spice blends at home as much as possible. When making at home I know what exactly is going in the blend and I can always modify it to my taste. Making flavorful aromatic tandoori masala is super easy, very similar to homemade Garam Masala. You don’t need any special spice to make Tandoori masala, most of the spices required for this blend are usually available in household kitchens.

1. Most of the recipes in which this tandoori masala is used are usually cooked or grilled in Tandoor or clay oven in a smoky environment because of that they absorb the smokey flavor. To bring out the similar smokey flavor, I have used smoked paprika powder instead of Kashmiri chili powder.
2. Whole spices used in the recipe needs to be roasted. Make sure to roast the spices on low to low-medium heat. So that the spices get roasted from inside as well and not just from the surface without getting burn.
3. You can add salt or leave it out as per your preference. I like to leave it out so that I don’t get confuse when adding spice into the recipe.
4. This recipe is a keeper! So double or triple the recipe and save leftover masala for later use. Stays well for months in an airtight spice jar at room temperature.

Helpful Tips to remember while making Tandoori Masala for veg pufff recipe:

• Use smoked paprika powder for smokey flavor .
• Don’t burn the spices while roasting.
• Leave out the salt and add later in the recipe.
• Make in advance.
• Make extra and use later.

Some time management tips for veg puff recipe:

These few simple tips will help you better manage your time when you follow the recipe and give you best results.

1. Transfer frozen puff pastry sheet to refrigerator section a day before to thaw.
2. If using strained yogurt for tandoori curry, place yogurt in sieve the night before.
3. Prepare Tandoor masala blend in advance and store in airtight spice jar.
4. Chop all vegetable and keep them aside.

Some FAQs regarding this Veg Puff Recipe:

Recipe

Recipes for condiments to go along with vegetable puff pastry:

• Strawberry Ginger Chutney: Sweet Sour and Spicy
• Cilantro Mint Green Chutney
• Cranberry Chutney