Squeeze the water from zucchini as much as you can.
Chop the shallots, green chili, ginger, and cilantro finely.
Also, chop the tomatoes and onion for the gravy.
Soak the almonds in 1 cup of water for 1 hour or microwave the almonds with 1 cup of water for 2 minutes and remove the skin.
Zucchini Kofta Preparation:
In a bowl, add the grated and water squeezed zucchini, chopped ginger, green chili, cilantro, chickpea flour, all-purpose flour, carom seeds, turmeric powder, shallots, and salt.
Do not add any water. Mix it thoroughly. If the mixture is watery, then add more chickpea flour or all-purpose flour.
Make sure the kofta flour mix is thick and make small lemon-sized balls and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat the oil for frying.
When the oil is hot, roll the zucchini balls over the breadcrumbs. (spread 1 tbsp of breadcrumb on a plate and add as required. Do not add the entire breadcrumbs at once)
Slowly drop these balls and fry until they are brown.
Take them out and let it sit in the tissue paper to remove the excess oil. Now the koftas are ready.
Gravy Preparation:
Pressure cook the chopped onion and tomatoes by adding one cup of water for just one whistle.
When the pressure is gone, open the pressure cooker and mash the onion and tomato with a potato masher.
Now heat the pressure cooker or kadai and add the cooked onion and tomato mix. I used my pressure pan so prepared the kofta curry in the same pot.
To this add the red chili powder, garam masala, salt, ginger-garlic paste.
Mix well and allow it simmer over medium heat for five minutes.
While it is simmering, grind the blanched almonds with remaining one cup of water.
Add this almond puree to the gravy and allow it to simmer for a couple more minutes.
Now add the koftas one by one and let it simmer for a few more minutes and that's it.
Garnish it with cilantro and serve hot it with rice or roti.
Notes
Instead of zucchini, you can use bottle gourd. And as always adjust spices and salt as per your preference.
Spread 1 tbsp of breadcrumb on a plate and add as required. Do not add the entire breadcrumbs at once.
Squeeze the water from zucchini as much as you can. If the kofta mix contains a lot of water content, the koftas might fall apart while frying or it might absorb more oil.
I first kept the tomato and onion mix in the pressure cooker and also microwaved the almonds and allowed it cool. While that was cooking, I made the koftas. By the time I fried koftas, the pressure was all gone, and I was able to open the cooker. Then I made the gravy and whipped up the kofta curry.
If you are not particular about vegan, then you can add fresh cream instead of almonds.
You can soak cashews and use the cashew cream instead of almonds.