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Dry fruits and nuts have always delighted the dessert and sweet dish platters by infusing their nutty and deep flavour that complements the sweetness, adding to the texture of the dessert, enhancing the bite and mouthfeel with crunchiness and making the desserts look more appealing. Whether as a flavour addition or a topping, dry fruits and nuts are used in many different ways to make the sweet recipes stand out. However, not many know that dry fruits can also be a flavorful addition to curries, gravies and savoury recipes.
The versatility of dry fruits is not just limited to everything sweet. In fact, its addition to curries might prove to be even more delightful. From crafting a thick and deeply flavoured curry base to improving the texture and bringing an exciting contrasting flavour, dry fruits can truly change the dimension of your regular recipes and make them utterly delicious.
Whether or not you like dry fruits, you can’t surely deny their delectable flavour after adding them to your meals. Apart from just being a flavorful addition, dry fruits bring a lot more to the table with their nutritious profile and natural oils. Check out these interesting ways in which you can add dry fruits and nuts to your curries and gravies.
Add to Gravy Base
Nuts like cashews, peanuts, almonds, coconut and walnuts act as great flavour and texture enhancers for gravy bases. They improve the texture and infuse their natural oils to make the texture smoother, denser and delightful. They can also work to add volume to the gravy base to make your gravies thicker and wholesome. Just throw in some nuts while you are blending the masala ingredients and see how wonderful your recipe tastes.
Create a Dry Mix
Dry fruits and nuts improve the flavour of dry spice mixes and dry chutneys. When you are preparing a dry mix for your curries, add in some roasted and ground dry fruits like raisins, dry dates (chuara), cashews, coconut, almonds and peanuts to bring a contrasting sweet flavour that highlights the spiciness. Also, when you are making dry chutney like chilli chutney, vada pav masala, or tangy chutney, you can add dried and ground mango and figs to bring an amazing flavour.
Add to Marinades
When making marinades for paneer, tofu or meats, add some ground dry fruits like raisins and dates to make the flavour intense, add a sweet aftertaste and improve the moisture of the ingredients. Natural oils in dry fruits and nuts work extremely well in helping the marinade spread and pierce through the meats and paneer and soak them well with the spices and flavours.
Add to Stir Fry
Throw in dry fruits and nuts like peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, pistachios, almonds, dried figs and coconut to improve the flavour and texture of the dishes. These dry fruits impart their unique nutty flavour with a delicious sweetness to make your recipes taste better. You can add dry fruits to almost every dry and wet gravy also as the base for your pulav and biryani.
Use as a Topping
If you want to improve the presentation of your recipes while adding a crunchy and delicious bite, you can use chopped and roasted dry fruits and nuts for the toppings. Dried tomatoes, almonds, cashews, raisins, shredded coconut, walnuts and dates are perfect for use as a topping. You can also incorporate pistachios and seeds to bring more colour.
After trying dry fruits and nuts with your gravies, you won't go back to the traditional methods. Try adding dry fruits to your regular recipes to make them taste way more delicious than before.
