This is my easy and beginner-friendly recipe for peanut curd that never fails!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Peanuts (250 ml cup)
2 tbsps cooked Rice
Water for soaking (enough to cover the peanuts)
4 cups Water – to make the peanut milk
6 to 8 crowns of green chilli

EQUIPMENT

Nut Milk Bag/ Muslin Cloth

INSTRUCTIONS

Soak the peanuts for 6 hours or overnight.

After 6 hours, discard the soaking water of the peanuts. Wash the peanuts well.

Add peanuts in the blender with 2 cups of fresh water and grind it well to extract the milk

Pass this through a nut milk bag or a thick sieve/muslin cloth to extract peanut milk.

Add the peanut pulp back to the jar along with the cooked rice. Add two more glasses of water and blend again. Extract the milk again using the nut milk bag/sieve

Heat the peanut milk on medium flame till it starts to bubble and come to a boil. This milk acts exactly like dairy milk in terms of boiling so you don’t have to keep watching it. It also doesn’t split like other plant milks.

When the milk comes to a rolling boil, reduce the flame to sim and let it simmer for 3 minutes.

The milk will become very thick; switch off the flame. Keep stirring every ten minutes till it cools down to lukewarm temperature.

Once it comes down to lukewarm temperature that is comfortable to touch, transfer this to your curd pot or any non-metallic container – clay works best; glass is good too. Keep the container in a warm place.

Now add the 6 to 8 green chilli crowns plus one slit green chilli. Let them sit on the surface of the milk. Do not wash the crowns before adding to the milk.

Cover this with a loose lid and let it rest for 9 to 11 hours. In colder climates, you may have to let it rest for 15 hours or more.

Remove the green chillis once the curd is set and transfer the container to the fridge for at least two hours. Thick and creamy peanut curd is then ready to eat.

Notes

1. 1 cup is equal to 250 ml
2. From 1 cup of raw peanuts you will get 1 litre of thick curd.
3. Keep the peanut pulp aside to make granola OR to add to atta for rotis OR as a thickener for any North Indian gravy dish. If using within three days, store the pulp in the fridge. Otherwise, store in the freezer.
4. Instant pot method: Keep the peanut milk vessel with the chilli crowns in the instant pot. Cover the vessel with a loose lid and close the instant pot. Set the valve to venting position. Keep it on Yogurt setting for 11 hours. Curd should be set by the next morning. Transfer to the fridge for at least two hours to thicken it up.

Cost-effective vegan curd

1 cup of peanuts = 150 gms (approximately). This yields 1 litre of curd

1 kg of peanuts yields around 6 to 7 cups

At the cost of INR 180/kg for peanuts, half litre of vegan curd costs around INR 15/-

Step By Step Pictures and videos: