Jeera is the hindi word for Cumin seeds and aloo is the hindi word for Potato. Jeera Aloo is a simple Indian dish made by cooking Potato mostly with the flavour of cumin seeds.
Whenever I make Jeera Aloo it reminds me of vacations spent with my parents and little sis at hill stations in Himachal Pradesh(India) . A very common food easily available was Potato and so was our lunch and dinner’s- Jeera aloo with paratha .
Potatoes in Jeera Aloo
One can use boiled potato or just add sliced or cubed potatoes. Both are fine . Just to reduce my cooking time I preferred boiled potatoes and preferably hard boiled potatoes. If you want to use raw potatoes you would just have cook it a little longer (this would also depend on the variety of potato used) adding some water in between and, remember to cover and cook for a speedy result. If you happen to over cook the potatoes do not bother because you can actually use it for making sandwiches or just a delicious spicy mash for as a side.
You can also chop the potatoes any way you like . My hubby chops it in wedges and it looks like wow. Here in my dish which was a quick dinner for family I roughly chopped them in cubes.
Cumin Seeds
There are 2 varieties of cumin seeds one is normal jeera and another is Shahi jeera. Shahi jeera adds a distinct royal flavour to your dishes it’s vastly used in Biryani and Mughlai dishes. The other Jeera is very commonly used in all Indian cooking . It is the beginning of the cooking process. We first start with a tempering of mustard seeds and jeera and then follow up with the other ingredients. For my Jeera Aloo i used both a pinch of shahi jeera for a lovely flavour and 1 tbsp of jeera . Further in the process jeera powder has also been used.
One can keep it simple just cumin seeds , potato and salt . Or add more flavours like I have added green chillies, ginger plus dry mango powder to tickle the taste buds and more of chilly (red chilly).
Here’s my recipe to spice up your potatoes
Jeera Aloo – A Quick stir-fried potato with cumin seeds
Equipment
- 1 pan
Ingredients
- 2 Potatoes
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 pinch shahi jeera
- 2 thai green chillies slit in 2 pieces
- 1 inch ginger thinly sliced
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder optional
- as per taste salt
- 1 tbsp cooking oil I use sunflower oil and the quantity required is absolutely your choice
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder optional
- 1 tsp dry mango powder optional (good for tickling your tastebuds)
Instructions
- Roughly chop boiled potatoes in cubes.
- Heat oil in a pan
- After its sufficiently heated, add cumin seeds both of them.
- Once they splutter add green chillies, ginger and saute them. Maintain the temperature of the oil such that the cumin seeds do not burn.
- Add turmeric powder.
- Add the potatoes followed by salt and dry mango powder. Mix it and cover and cook for 2-3mins.
- Garnish with coriander leaves if required and Serve.
