Dum Aloo

A easy vegetarian and Ayurvedic potato dish for which you don?t even need to cut the potatoes!

How to prepare Dum Aloo

First of all you wash and peel the potatoes. If you know that your potatoes are clean and safe to eat as whole, you can also only wash them properly. In this case it is good if the skin of the potatoes is thin.

Then you take a toothpick, a fork or something similar and make small holes into the potato from all sides. They should be small in radius but may be deep. These holes are made to let the potatoes cook faster as well as to ensure that the spices will later reach the inside of the potatoes.

Now you mix the powder of the spices together in a bowl and drip some water into the bowl so that it becomes a smooth paste.

Heat up the olive oil in a deep pan. When it is hot, add cumin and mustard into the pan before adding the paste of the spices. Roast the spices only a little bit before mixing half a cup of water into it. Churn this mix for about one minute.

In a next step you add the potatoes to the spices and sprinkle salt on top. Mix this well, so that all potatoes are in contact with the different spices and finally place a lid on the pan to let the potatoes get cooked.

Depending on the size of potato it takes about 20 to 25 minutes to get done. You stir them from time to time and check whether they are done by sticking a thin knife or a toothpick into them. If it goes in and comes out really easily, your potatoes are done.

Enjoy!

Ayurvedic Benefits

Dum Aloo can be, if you cook it with the right spices, a balanced Ayurvedic dish. We have taken care not to use a lot of oil or fat. In other recipes for Dum Aloo the potatoes are deep-fried which we fully avoided by making them in a pan with a lid.

As potatoes are known to increase Vata, we add cumin and ginger which both reduce the effects of Vata. Additionally cumin pacifies the Kapha which is increased a bit by the Coriander.

Of course you always have a choice to make the dish more or less spicy. In this way the effect on your doshas will be more or less intense.