Of Donkeys & Dhoklas

Tasty peanut curd is something I have been making for a long time now. Traditionally, peanut milk is extracted after soaking the peanuts for a few hours. Now, I run a free Vegan Dahi (Curd) & Jaman (Starter) Group on WhatsApp, where we discuss newer ways of making vegan curd and experiment with various methods. My friend and co-admin, VK, tried a quick-fix method one day. She simply gave the peanuts a quick boil and extracted the milk without soaking the peanuts first. And this worked out pretty well! Inspired by her, I tried my own version of the “No-Soak Peanut Curd” and here we are 🙂

The basic rules remain the same: you need fresh, good-quality peanuts to make creamy and tasty dahi with a thick, “cutting” consistency. And you need a good quality starter.

In this post, I suggest using 4 cups of water for 1 cup of peanuts, but you may  use up to 5 cups of water if you want to stretch the recipe.

Easy Peanut Curd (No Soaking Required!)

Preparation time: 20 minutes + setting time

1 Indian Teacup = 150 ml

This recipe yields around 4 cups (600 ml) of peanut curd.

Method:

1. Place the peanuts in a saucepan/kadhai and cover with water. Add salt and lemon juice, and bring to a boil.

2. Boil for 2-3 minutes on high heat, uncovered. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan. Keep aside for 5 minutes.

3. Drain & wash the peanuts well under running water. Be careful here, as the peanuts will still be hot.

4. Transfer the peanuts to a blender jar and blend with 1 cup of fresh water until smooth. Add the remaining three cups of water and blend again. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the capacity of your mixer jar.

5. Use a filter or nut-milk bag to extract the milk from this peanut slurry. This will yield around four cups of peanut milk. The residual pulp can be fed to dogs/cows/donkeys.

6. In a deep-bottomed kadhai/saucepan, bring the peanut milk to a boil, stirring continuously. Lower the heat and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

7. Take the milk off the heat and let it cool down for some time. Once it is just  warm enough—you should be able to dip a finger comfortably—mix in the starter curd and stir well.

8. Keep aside to set for as long as you would for dairy curd according to the climatic conditions in your region. Setting time would vary from 5-7 hours in summer to 10-12 hours in winter.

Note: Check out this Easy Thick & Tasty Peanut Curd (No Starter Required!) if you don’t have any vegan curd starter on hand!

Enjoy!

Also see:

11+ Types of Homemade Vegan Curd

Join my Vegan Dahi (Curd) & Jaman (Starter) Group to learn about vegan curd making!