Literally, years. It’s been this one supposedly very simple, basic dish that I just wasn’t able to perfect. I have about 6 different versions of Aloo Gobi recipes I’ve tried to develop and just not liked enough to be able to post here. There I was, impressing people with all my lamb and chicken recipes, whipping up last-minute dinners for a huge crowd for fun, yet unable to produce a shareable Aloo Gobi recipe hangs head in shame.
♨️ How do you make Aloo Gobi?
📋 Recipe
A simple, homely, wholesome recipe. The flavours are simple and comforting. A dry-style vegetable curry. By dry, I don’t mean it’ll have you reaching for gulps of water after every bite. I mean it’s more of a steamed vegetable dish as opposed to a more saucy or creamy affair. The potatoes and cauliflower are tender and soft, but not mushy and soggy
Chop the onions finely - this makes the onions ‘melt’ into the curry quicker and more easily and is super important if you don’t want chunks of onion in your curry! Either blend or finely chop the tomatoes. In the images shown, I’ve blended them. The recipe is fine either way. Peel the potatoes and chop them - I prefer them to be medium sized cubes, so they retain their shape. Cut them too fine and they risk getting mashed.
For the cauliflower, set aside the stems. You can use them for something else, such a vegetable broth, but they just aren’t so good in this recipe as they remain tough and don’t work so well with the texture of things. Chop the cauliflower into medium-sized florets slightly larger in size than the potato cubes.
Add all the spices and green chillies. Allow this to fry for 2-3 minutes. Add in the tomatoes. Mine were pureed in the blender, so quite liquid. Turn the heat down to low and allow the mixture to simmer for about half an hour, checking in between and giving a stir just to ensure nothing is burning. If needed, added a very minimal amount of water to prevent burning - ¼ cup or less at a time if and as needed is a safe bet. Mushy potatoes are a result of overcooking and breaking. Here are some possible solutions to this:
Avoid overcooking them - once they’re done, they’re DONE and they don’t need extra time. Overcooked potatoes are bound to break. Handle the entire curry quite gentle once they begin to get tender. Don’t use an aggressive hand when stirring as this can break the potatoes. Avoid slicing the potatoes - I prefer to cut mine into medium sized cubes. The reason for this is, if they are thinly sliced they will cook quicker, thus more likely to become overcooked and will be more delicate, thus more likely to break
Soggy cauliflower is a result of too much moisture + overcooking. Cauliflower is a high moisture-content vegetable - it doesn’t need lots of water added to cook it. When we add too much water, this + the moisture already present in the cauliflower = a recipe for a soggy and sorry Aloo Gobi. And that’s why I bang on quite a lot about not adding water if you can help it. So here’s what we’re going to do to combat it:
Limit the amount of water you add. We want to add JUST enough to ensure it doesn’t burn, but NOTHING more than that because the cauliflower WILL release it’s own moisture when given time. And when that happens, you’ll end up a lot of sad sogginess. Just think about boiled cauliflower vs steamed cauliflower. When you add too much water and cook the curry, you end up with boiled cauliflower in a curry. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of boiled cauliflower one bit. Don’t overcook. You want to get in there just as everything is tender and stop right there. It doesn’t need ANY more time, otherwise things will get soggy and mushy. This is also another reason why adding a limited amount of water is good - because if there’s still water in the pan when the veggies are cooked, you’re in trouble.
If you want more sauce, I would recommend doubling the amount of onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic and x0.5 the spices (so if the recipe says 2tsp coriander powder, add 3tsp) and adjust the taste to your liking. This should create an ample amount of sauce. Store in an airtight container - it will be good for 3-4 months. It also does really well with salad - even having some vegetables just cut up and served as I’ve shown in the images is good enough. Especially the red onions drools. A squeeze of lemon also does wonders. Additionally, Aloo Gobi would go wonderful with some pickle (achaar). You can also add other quick cooking vegetables like spinach (palak), fenugreek (methi) 5 minutes before cook time is over.
Mash them up and make little Aloo Gobi patties/cakes/tikkis/whatever you’d like to call them Use them to fill sandwiches with. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m a fan of a good sabzi and cheese toastie 😉 They go good in quesadillas too! I’ve actually once gone ahead and baked them with a huge, healthy hand of cheddar cheese. Spicy cauliflower cheese, ftw. Use them to make a stuffed paratha - they’ll need just a bit of prep before they’re ready.
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