One-Pot Indian Potatoes

These perfectly tender one-pot Indian potatoes come together in just one pot for minimal washing up. The recipe is quick, easy, simple and full of flavour – it makes an awesome side dish! Plus, it’s coincidentally vegan!

To most Indians, this dish would be known as potato sabji or sabzi, but we just call them Indian potatoes. I make no claims that this is authentic, although I do believe it’s reasonably similar to how the dish is cooked in India.

The only common ingredient that I didn’t use was curry leaves as they aren’t easily available here in the UK. I think this is a climate issue, so if you live somewhere warmer then you could definitely see if you can get some curry leaves to mix in for extra flavour.

What ingredients are used to make Indian potatoes?

These potatoes are fairly minimal, although you may not already have all the spices that you’ll need.

• Potatoes. You can use baby potatoes or large ones – I used maris piper potatoes this time, but often use baby potatoes. You can choose whether to peel them or not. Personally, I prefer to leave the potato skins on.
• a mild or un-flavoured cooking oil such as vegetable oil, sunflower oil or canola oil
• mustard seeds and cumin seeds. These are both really important to the flavour of the dish so try not to leave them out!
• green chilli pepper. It doesn’t need to be any particular type of chilli pepper, but make sure that you use a fairly medium-sized one. I deseeded mine as I find the seeds can be slightly bitter.
• turmeric powder for some gorgeous yellow potatoes! Be careful though – it stains badly if you get it on your clothes!
• asafoetida (also known as hing). This gives the dish a slight onion-garlic flavour that’s subtle but delicious. It tastes awful raw though so don’t sniff it, just trust me and use a little bit!
• lemon juice. I use bottled lemon juice as you only need a tiny bit and to be honest, I really didn’t feel like juicing a lemon!
• a touch of sugar – ideally granulated sugar. Don’t use icing/confectioners sugar or brown sugar.
• fresh coriander leaves. Again, this flavour is quite important even though it might look like a garnish. Fresh coriander is sometimes known as cilantro, particularly in America.
• salt to season the dish!

It looks like a lot of ingredients, but really it’s just oil, potatoes, spices and salt – nothing too fancy!

Why is there no onion or garlic?

I don’t use onion or garlic in my one-pot Indian potatoes as I find that they’d take too long to cook properly and can overwhelm the subtle flavours of the other spices. However, if you can’t get asafoetida then try using a pinch of garlic powder instead so that you don’t miss that little pop of flavour.

How do I make one-pot Indian potatoes?

The trick to only having one pot to wash up is to cook the potatoes in the microwave. This is also, coincidentally, the same way that I cook my parmesan, garlic and herb microwave potatoes.

If you prefer, you can boil your potatoes instead but it takes much longer and you still get the same result in the end.

To microwave the potatoes, just toss them with some cooking oil and spread in a shallow dish (in a single layer). Cover with cling film and pierce several times to allow steam to escape and then microwave (stirring halfway through) until the potatoes are tender. I have a 900 Watt microwave and this took 4 minutes for me.

Then, you move on to the other ingredients:

1. heat some more oil in a saucepan over medium heat and once hot, add the mustard seeds. They should crackle and pop (rather violently) so you may want to keep a lid handy!
2. once the mustard seeds have popped, add the cumin seeds and continue to cook until they turn brown.
3. add the green chilli pepper and let it cook for a minute over low heat.
4. add the turmeric and asafoetida and stir them into the oil and other ingredients.
5. tip the potatoes from the microwave dish into the pan and stir so that the spices lightly coat them.
6. Season with salt and add the sugar. Cook for 3 minutes over low heat.
7. remove the pan from heat and add the lemon juice. Be sure to drizzle it over the potatoes so that they absorb the lemon evenly. Stir in the fresh coriander and serve.

Again, it looks like more steps than it is. Really, all you’re doing is adding the ingredients one after another until the recipe is complete.

How can I customise these easy Indian-spiced potatoes?

You can customise these potatoes in so many ways!

• try using lime juice instead of lemon
• add some frozen peas along with the salt and sugar for some extra veg
• you could experiment with sweet potatoes and cut out the sugar
• try using a flavoured salt such as lemon, lime or lightly smoked salt
• add an extra green chilli pepper if you like things spicy – or reduce the chilli pepper to 1/2 instead of a whole one if you like things mild!
• use other veggies such as zucchini instead of potatoes for extra nutrition
• add some diced tomatoes with the salt and sugar to form a slight sauce (although be careful not to add too much as you don’t want to overwhelm the spices)

or really any other experiments your heart desires! If you do decide to experiment by making your own version then be sure to leave a comment on this post to let me know what you did and how well it worked!

What should I serve with these one-pot potatoes?

These simple Indian potatoes go very well as a side dish with saucy curries, onion bhajis, naan breads and poppadoms. However, you could simply serve them as a side dish for chicken tikka or another Indian protein and call that a meal for one – especially if you add some extra veggies or side salad!

• chicken tikka
• Indian-spiced whole chicken with coriander and mint raita for an Indian-style roast dinner
• Indian pork chops
• Indian steak for a spiced-up steak and potatoes
• vegan vegetable masala curry for a vegan Indian fakeout
• Indian onion, tomato & coriander salad for some veg
• green mint & Coriander Indian chutney for dipping or drizzling
• easy Gujarati-style roti to mop up the spices
• easy chapati because no meal is complete without bread

Continue to Content

One-Pot Indian Potatoes

Yield: 2 (as a side dish)

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

These perfectly tender Indian potatoes come together in just one pot for minimal washing up. The recipe is quick, easy, simple and full of flavour - it makes an awesome side dish!

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Ingredients

• 200 grams potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tbsp neutral cooking oil, split
• 3/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 3/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely diced
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
• 1 tsp lemon juice (bottled is fine)
• 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
• salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Toss potatoes with 1/2 the oil and place in a shallow microwave-safe bowl. Cover with cling-film and microwave, stirring every 2 minutes, until fork-tender (approximately 4 minutes).
2. heat the rest of the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, add the mustard seeds and let them pop.
3. Add the cumin seeds and let them brown, then add the green chilli and cook for a minute over low heat.
4. Add the turmeric and asafoetida and stir them into the oil.
5. Pour in the cooked potatoes and stir to coat them in the flavoured oil. Season with salt and sugar and cook for 3-4 minutes over low heat, stirring often.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and drizzle the lemon juice evenly over the potatoes. Gently stir in the coriander leaves and serve.

Notes

• potatoes can be boiled in salted water instead of microwaving. Peeling the potatoes is optional.
• if you can get fresh curry leaves then they make a great addition - add them with the green chilli pepper

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1/2 batch
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 513Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 50mgSodium: 1289mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 4gSugar: 5gProtein: 21g

All nutrition information is an estimate and may vary.

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