Soya Chaap Butter Masala Recipe

Soya Chaap Butter Masala is a vegetarian butter chicken recipe. This is a true restaurant-style butter masala recipe for anyone bored of paneer.

The Signature Butter Masala Gravy

The process of making soya chaap butter masala might look long but is the simplest one. It is a three steps process. First step, is to marinate and grill the soya chaap tikka. The second step is to make the butter masala gravy. The third step is to combine both and do the finishing touch.

For this butter masala recipe, you can use my pre-made, signature makhani masala or the no onion, no garlic Jain style butter masala gravy.

My cookbook has a vegan soya chaap tikka masala recipe that you can easily cook in an instant pot.

What is Soya Chaap?

Soya Chaap is mock meat or vegan meat made with soya beans. The soya meat is wrapped around wooden sticks to give a vegetarian leg-piece-like appearance. Hence, the name soya chaap.

In the Northern part of India, we are blessed with fresh soya chaap. In other parts of India, they are readily available in the dairy section of supermarkets, grocery stores, and frozen or canned food sections.

Soya chaap has a perfect meaty texture to compliment the rich and creamy Indian vegetarian curries such as Punjabi Soya Chaap Masala. It is a fabulous vegan ingredient.

Ingredients Required For Gravy

Soya Chaap: I use fresh or canned soya sticks for this curry recipe.

Curry Base: Onion, Tomato, Garlic, Ginger

Creaminess: Cashew, White Poppy Seeds, Fresh Cream

Tomato Ketchup: It gives a delectable sweet taste to the butter masala gravy. You can use tomato sauce or tomato paste instead of ketchup.

Spices: Kashmiri Red Chilies, Red Chili Powder, Salt, Kasuri Methi, and Garam Masala

Cooking Oil: You can use butter, ghee, or refined oil for cooking the masala.

Other Ingredients: Salt, Water

How To Make

This Soya Chaap Butter Masala Recipe is a two-step process.

1) Marinate and Fry the Soya Meat

2) Prepare the Gravy

3) Assemble the curry

Step 1) Remove wooden sticks from the soya meat and cut the chaap into bite-size round or oval pieces.

Step 2) Marinate chaap with salt, ginger-garlic paste, curd, red chili powder, and turmeric powder. Mix to coat each piece with the marinade masala (images 1 & 2). Keep aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour. You can marinate them overnight as well.

Step 3) Heat oil in a pan for shallow frying. Once the oil is hot, fry the soya chaap till crisp and golden from both sides (image 3). You can air-fry them as well. Transfer fried soya chunks to a bowl and set aside.

Step 1) Heat oil in a heavy bottom kadhai or wok over medium flame. Add dried red chili, poppy seeds, onion, ginger, garlic, and cashews. Fry the masala till the onion turn light brown (image 1).

Step 2) Add chopped tomato and season with salt. Cook the tomatoes until they are mushy and the oil separates from the masala.

Step 3) Once tomato masala is ready, add water and stir to mix. Simmer for 1 minute. Turn off the heat. Transfer the tomato masala to a blender. Grind to a smooth paste (images 2 & 3).

Step 4) Transfer the butter masala gravy to the pan after blending. For a silly smooth texture, pass it through a sieve (image 4).

Step 5) Turn on the heat. Once the gravy starts simmering, add red chili powder, tomato ketchup, garam masala, fresh cream, and kasuri methi. Stir to combine. Allow the butter masala gravy to simmer for 5 minutes over low heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning according to preference.

Step 6) Add the fried soya chaap meat to the butter masala gravy. Combine. Cover the pan with a lid, and simmer the curry over low heat for another 5 minutes.

Garnish soya chaap butter masala with fresh cream and fresh coriander.

Serving Suggestion

This is a truly restaurant-style curry that tastes perfect with whole wheat naan, paratha, roomali roti, lachha paratha, or jeera rice.

Store the leftover soya chaap butter masala in the refrigerator. While reheating, add ¼ cup of milk to get a curry-like creamy consistency.

More Indian Curry Recipes

• Dum Aloo
• Chana Saag
• Potato Curry
• Paneer Curry
• Cauliflower Curry
• Mushroom Masala
• Spinach Egg Curry

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