Aloo Matar
Aloo Matar is one dish I’ve started making quite often nowadays, because it’s easy to make and tastes absolutely delicious. It’s a north Indian gravy dish made with potatoes and green peas – a very versatile side dish that goes very well with roti, puri or rice. I’m happy to share my cousin’s recipe for Aloo Matar, for all you potato lovers!
Ingredients
Ripe tomato – 2 medium sized chopped roughly
Ginger – 2 cm piece
Garlic – 2 pods
Cooking oil – 3 tbsp
Ghee – 1 tbsp (optional)
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Carom seeds – 1/2 tsp
Onion (finely chopped) – 1 large sized
Potato – 2 large (peeled and cubed)
Red chilly powder – 1 1/2 tsp (or to taste)
Garam masala powder – 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1/2 tsp
Dry fenugreek leaves – 2 tbsp
Salt – 1 tsp (or to taste)
Sugar/Jaggery powder – 1/2 tsp
Fresh/frozen green peas – 1 cup
Water – as required
Fresh coriander leaves – 2 tbsp (finely chopped)
Unsalted butter – 1 tbsp (optional)
Yield
Serves 4
Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
30 mins
Method
1) Grind tomato, ginger and garlic until smooth.
2) Heat a pressure cooker/pan and add oil and ghee. When oil heats up a bit, add cumin and carom seeds. Let it splutter. Add chopped onions and fry until translucent.
3) Now add the cubed potatoes, mix once and cover the pan. Let it cook for 2 to 3 mins. Open the pan and add the ground tomato-ginger-garlic paste. Mix once. Then add red chilly powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and dried fenugreek leaves. Fry all this in low heat for two minutes.
4) Add salt and sugar now. Mix well and let it boil for two more mins. Add green peas and some water (use enough water to cook potatoes and peas) at this stage and mix. Close the pressure cooker/pan and boil until potatoes are cooked fully. When potatoes are done, just mash a few potato cubes to get a perfect gravy consistency (don’t mash all the potatoes).
5) Your Aloo Matar is ready. Garnish with some chopped fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot with any Indian bread or just plain rice or jeera rice.
Notes
- As the name suggests, this is primarily a gravy dish made with potatoes. As an alternative, you can use sweet potatoes and skip adding sugar/jaggery.
- The same recipe can be used to make Paneer Matar-yet another simple, interesting north Indian gravy dish. Use cubed paneer instead of potatoes. In this case, make the entire recipe without potatoes (after frying onions, add tomato paste and continue the process from there) and add paneer cubes after the green peas cooks fully.
- Add a tbsp of butter immediately after you switch off the heat for a glazed finish.
