I love cooking almost as much as I love baking, and I have recently been trying to get into Indian cooking! I just love the smells, flavours and dishes of the Indian cuisine and wanted to learn more about cooking with whole spices and homemade spice mixes. This Aloo Gobi (Potato and Cauliflower) dish is perfect as a side dish and even as a main course! It’s really easy to make, tastes great and is also freezer-friendly! So an all-round winner!
What is Aloo Gobi?
You might recognise the name of the dish, Aloo Gobi, from the menu of an Indian restaurant or takeaway. The word “aloo” means potato, and the word “gobi” means cauliflower – and that is essentially what this dish is! It is yellow in colour, predominantly due to the ground turmeric, but also contains many other spices, such as garam masala, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.
I love cooking with whole spices, adding the cumin and coriander seeds to the hot oil and letting them sizzle, pop open, and release all their yummy flavours! The dish is then packed with more Indian cooking staples, such an onion, garlic, ginger and chilli! Once you have cooked off the spice base of the dish, you then just add the potatoes and cauliflower with a splash of water, and leave it to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Make sure to cut the potato and cauliflower into similar-sized chunks to make sure they cook at roughly the same time!
More Indian-inspired Cooking
As I said above, Indian cuisine is one of my absolute favourites and I am trying to learn how to make more Indian dishes! Please feel free to check out some of my other recipes below (you HAVE to try my 2-ingredient naan breads, they are so good and easy to make), and hopefully the list will just keep on growing!
- Easy 2 Ingredient Naan Breads
- Chicken, Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry
- Vegan Chickpea and Spinach Curry
- Easy Lamb Bhuna
- Creamy Coconut and Chicken Curry
- Red Lentil Dhal with Crispy Roasted Aubergine
- Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Dhal
Aloo Gobi – Indian Potato and Cauliflower Dish (Vegan)
Recipe
Ingredients (serves 2-3 as a main, 4 as a side):
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 white onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
- 1 green chilli, finely sliced (optional)
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 large potatoes, scrubbed and cut into cubes (roughly 2×2 cm)
- 1 small-medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets (similar size to the potato cubes)
- 50ml boiling water
- Fresh coriander, to serve
Method:
- In a large frying pan, heat the 2 tbsp of sunflower oil until hot. Add in the cumin and coriander seeds and leave them to sizzle in the hot oil for around 1 minute, tossing them in the oil.
- Next, add in the diced onion, garlic, ginger and chilli. Gently cook over a medium heat for around 5 minutes until the onions start to become soft and translucent. Then stir in the turmeric, garam masala, salt and black pepper to coat the onion mix completely.
- Add the cubed potatoes and cauliflower and mix well with the other ingredients in the pan. Pour in around 50ml of boiling water, then cover the pan and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Check if the potato is cooked by piercing it with a sharp knife or fork. If it is not yet cooked, add another splash of water and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Scatter some chopped fresh coriander over the aloo gobi and serve hot!
