Sunday Brunch is a thing. Aloo ki tarkari for that Brunch is also a thing. Trying to up your aloo ki tarkari game to restaurant level is also a thing. ME rambling on about my love for this tarkari…is also a LEGIT thing!
It’s definitely part of a very traditional Pakistani / Indian breakfast buffet with much traditional vegetarian food. Brown people call it, “Halwa puri ka nashta” meaning “semolina pudding and fried bread breakfast” but it has this potato curry, along with a chickpea curry that goes with it too.
What do you pair aloo ki tarkari with?
- Suji ka halwa and puri
- Rice Kheer and Puri
- Cholay ka saalan and puri
- With a simple paratha / naan….(drooling while typing this)
- With some serious BBQ options like Chicken tikka
- As a side with mains like Dam ka keema.
- with bread…when there’s some left over from last night
How to make Aloo ki tarkari in 4 easy steps
Step 1 – Chopping the ingredients.
No matter what level you are on your culinary skills journey, this is a recipe you can DEFINITELY make! This is an overview of the ingredients you will needs for the recipe.
What important to note here is the size of the chopped potatoes. The cubes that I cut are small. Roughly about 1 cm in size. This is ideal for the tarkari that we are trying to create.
Step 2 – Caramelizing the onions and dry spices.
The dry or whole spice mix in this recipe includes mostly seeds like cumin, fennel, nigella, mustard and carom. They are almost crucial to get that amazing aroma and subtle taste that comes with them. I would not in a MILLION years tell you that you can skip it. (BUT if you don’t have these, I mean … you can..but knoww! that the it’ll effect the taste.)
Fry the onions along with these dry spices. The onion doesn’t need to go to a dark brown color,( like when we use in chicken ka saalan.) Just a light golden brown color is good enough.
Step 3 – Adding tomatoes and spices
Then you add tomatoes, garlic ginger paste and all the powdered spices. Once you mix everything up, cover the lid of the pot and reduce the flame to low. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Tomatoes release water at lower temperatures. So its important to reduce the flame, to allow tomatoes to soften up and form a nice curry base.
Give it roughly 5 to 8 mins. And it’ll look something like the picture below.
Step 4 – Adding potatoes and water.
When you have your curry base, its Finally time to add potatoes and water. Leave it at medium flame for 15 to 20 mins covered.
These potatoes are generally made softer than regular potato curries. In another words, they are slightly overcooked. So in 15 to 20 mins, the water will reduce by 75% and the potatoes will becomes super tender.
What happens is, when the water reduces over time, the smaller potato pieces turn into a soft mush and give the gravy a nice thick feel to it. Some people and restaurants add cornflour to their potato curries to give that thick gravy feel. But honestly, for me, cornflour in my aloo ki tarkari is a big no no. It effects the taste, texture and flavors as well.
After 15 mins or so, you will get a perfectly made aloo ki tarkari, and you’ll see the oil separating on the side to know that.
Serve with halwa puri or paratha….or you know all the different options we talked about above!
Alternates, Fixes and Remixes
Alternates
| INGREDIENTS | SUBSTITUTES |
| Tomatoes | 1 cup of canned tomatoes OR 1/3 cup of tomato paste |
| Ginger Garlic paste | Freshly chopped garlic and ginger. 4 cloves of garlic and 1 inch piece of ginger. (Add it when browning the onions) |
Fixes
- You can reduce the red chili powder if you want your potatoes to be less spicy.
- For a more reddish hue of the tarkari, add 1/2 tsp of kashmiri lal mirch
- If you want your tarkari to be MORE spicy, AFTER your dish is ready, add paprika powder or crushed red chili powder.
Remixes
- You can add 1/2 cup of boiled chickpeas in this recipe to make aloo channey.
- If you have left over aloo ki tarkari, you can dry it out at high flame and make aloo samosas.
Aloo ki tarkari
Ingredients
- 4 medium potatoes diced into small cubes
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 tsp garlic ginger paste
- 1/2 tsp crushed red chili flakes
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder haldi
- 2 medium tomatoes chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 2 cups water or as needed
- 1/3 cup oil
Dry spices
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds zeera
- 1/2 tsp nigella seeds kalongi
- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds rye
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds saunf
- 1/4 tsp carom seeds ajwain
Instructions
- In a pot or pan, add oil, onion and all dry spices and heat at medium flame until the onions become light brown.
- Then add all the other spices, salt and tomatoes. Reduce the flame to medium low and cover the pot. Allow tomatoes to soften up for 5 mins.
- Once the tomatoes soften up, add potatoes along with 2 cups of water.
- Cover the pot once more and let the potatoes simmer for 15 mins at medium low flame.
- The potatoes in this curry are super soft, and over cooked. The overcooking causes some of the fine potato pieces to become mushy and give this dish a thick curry base.
- Once you reach the desired consistency, turn off the flame and serve with parathas, or halwa puri (fried flatbread)
Emily says
deeeelicious, but, it took me 1 hour to soften my potato! it was diced very small and peeled. Is there a specific type of potato that I should have used?
Wajiha says
hey Emily, Ive made this recipe from a couple of different type of potatoes but they usually soften up within 30 mins. IF you are using harder potatoes, you can pressure cook them instead to reduce your cooking time. Out of curiosity, what potatoes were you using?
Afzal says
This has been our go-to aaloo ki tarkari recipe for more than a year now. I just have one question.
When does the ginger garlic paste get added? We sometimes add it when frying the onion but not sure when it’s actually intended to be added.
Wajiha says
You can add it once your onions have become slightly pinkish golden. Thats the perfect time to add your gg paste
Habiba says
I made it last weekend, I can say this is the best aloo dish I’ve made! Very tasty, filling and wholesome! Will make this again!
Wajiha says
aww Habiba! that is sooo good to hear! thankyou for taking your time out to leave this lovely msg for me.
safa says
I loved the recipe. So easy to make and i paired it with Halwa poori. And taste soo good , lots of love ????????
F&F: Ammi's Kitchen says
YUM! Looks very delicious
Wajiha says
🙂 it really is a brunch fav! thx man