Achari Aloo ki Sabzi – SUCH a flavorful vegetable dish!

Food is tactile. The shape of roti enables you to pick it up with ease while wrapping it around potato filling which requires a masterful bite placement that marks only the top part of your fingers. Every piece of Achari Aloo provides a gentle bite of seeds and spices during consumption.

That savoury nigella seed, the sweet saunf, and heady cumin. Achari Aloo is a dish that reminds me of the magic of spices, of how combining things a certain way changes how they taste entirely.

What is Achar?

The food condiment Achar receives its name from the traditional pickle-making process. Each type of vegetable becomes suitable for pickling including carrots alongside mangoes and karelay. According to South Asian definition of pickling processes involve mixing spices together with mustard oil but without the western focus on acidic mediums. Various spices appear regularly across the different formulations used for making achar.

• kalonji or nigella seeds
• methi dana or fenugreek seeds
• saunf or anise
• rai or mustard seeds
• salt (a must)
• turmeric (sometimes)
  

  3 Tips for Making Achari Aloo

  1.) Watch the heat: when you add your spices to the oil you want it hot not smoking because that will instantly burn the spices 2.) The texture and taste of Yellow Potatoes parallels perfectly with the potatoes from my childhood Pakistan making them the preferred spuds whenever I decide to cook them.

  3.) Taste test: Right at the end when you’ve adjusted the curry to your liking then check for that must have balance of salt and spice.

  Achari Aloo

  Ingredients

  Achari Masala

  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp red chili powder
  • ⅓ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp cumin seeds
  • ½ tsp coriander seeds (lightly crushed)
  • ½ tsp nigella seeds
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds
  • ½ tsp saunf
  • ⅓ tsp fenugreek seeds

  Sabzi Ingredients

  • 1 Onion (diced) – roughly half a cup
  • A few curry leaves (optional)
  • 4-5 Diced Potatoes (I usually do slim ½ cm thick pieces for quicker cooking)
  • ½ tsp ginger garlic paste (or a ¼ tsp each)
  • 1 Tomato (diced)

  Finishing touches

  • 2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 2-3 diced green chilies
  • a squeeze of lemon juice

  Instructions

  Achari Masala

  • you need to combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside

  Sabzi

  • Heat ¼ cup of oil in a saucepan with a lid
  • Saute the onions on medium heat until the edges are turning golden brown
  • Add the ginger garlic paste, saute for 30 seconds
  • Now add in the achari masala ingredients and saute till aromatic
  • Mix in the chopped potatoes and tomato, make sure you mix well.
  • Cover and cook on low flame for 20 minutes, add a splash of water if the mix starts to stick.
  • After 20 minutes check for doneness, if the potatoes are tender you can adjust consistency by adding water or drying it up (your preference)
  • Add a squeeze of lemon juice then taste and adjust seasoning.
  • Serve topped with cilantro and chilies . Hope that you will like like this recipe and share your thoughts in comments below thank you so much .