In Indian cuisine, you will find countless recipes where potatoes play an important role as the star of the dish. It is consumed a lot, and so far I have not come across a single potato dish that I don’t like! If you enjoy potatoes, you will definitely love this Jeera Aloo Recipe.
What is Jeera Aloo
Jeera is Cumin Seeds in Hindi, and Aloo is Potato. Jeera Aloo is a quick, minimal side dish that is often prepared on busy weeknights. It doesn’t call for too many spices, doesn’t require too much chopping or any other prep work, which makes it the best go to weeknight side dish to pair with roti or paratha. I didn’t grow up eating this dish and learned it only after I got married. As a Bengali who loves potatoes any day, learning about this side dish got me excited to prepare it every day.
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Ingredients for Jeera Aloo
Cumin Seeds (Jeera) - A Key Ingredient for the dish, and you definitely need cumin seeds. Potatoes (Aloo) - I like to use yellow potatoes for the dish and instead of boiling, I steam the potatoes in my electric Pressure Cooker. Makes it so hassle free to peel the potatoes. Also, steaming helps to keep the potatoes dry and not too watery so when you stir fry it in the hot pan, it creates a lovely crust. Other Spices - Cumin powder, Coriander Powder, Chili Powder and Turmeric Powder. Asafoetida (Hing) - In my opinion, Asafoetida(hing) is yet another key ingredients in this dish. You can totally skip the rest of the spices if you don’t have them. But cumin seeds and Asafoetida cannot be substituted.
Raw Potatoes, Boiling or Steaming ?
I personally always go for steaming the potatoes with the skin on. When you steam the potatoes, they don’t absorb excess water and remains dry. Once cooled just enough, so you can handle, peeling the potatoes are super easy and effortless. If you chose to boil the potatoes, then make sure to leave it on the colander for a while to dry out, after draining the hot water. You can use raw potatoes, too, to prepare this Jeera Aloo recipe. The only reason why I prefer steaming is because, it needs less oil to prepare the dish and the spices coats beautifully on the soft cooked potatoes. Cooking raw potatoes with the spices will definitely call for more oil and more time to prepare the dish.
What goes well with Jeera Aloo?
It is best paired with paratha or roti alongside some daal. We also love it with poori. You can also use the jeera aloo in wraps and sandwiches.
Here are more recipes featuring the humble potatoes!
How long to boil to steam potatoes?
I steam the yellow potatoes for not more than 10 minutes! You want the texture of the cook potatoes to be soft but retains shape easily. As you cook the boiled/steamed potatoes in the spices, you want the potato bites to coat the spices and not turn into mashed spiced potatoes. If you never tried this simple, side dish, you absolutely must and let me know how you liked it!
