Easy Potato Masala/Spicy Potato Bhaji

Potato bhaji or the spicy potato masala is an Indian dish, very similar to mashed potaoes but spicy, has lesser fat since there are no milk, cream or butter in it.

This recipe is a multi-use dish – Use can use it as side dish for Poori – the famous fried unleavened bread, a super filling for samosa, bake this in a puff pastry to make the amazing savory treats, make them into a filling for bread sandwich and grill them for an evening snack or even lunch, put some in the dosa and make them into masal dosa.. like I told it is useful in many ways.

The recipe, while I have mentioned as Spicy, is not as spicy and adjust the chilli as required.

My recipe calls for chopped green chilli and whole red chilli and some red chilli powder. If you want it more spicy, chop the dried red chilli, and increase the chilli powder by another half a teaspoon.

If you want it less spicy, do not chop the chilli. So it’s totally adjustable.

The recipe has three steps – Boiling the potatoes, Make a super flavorful tempering and mixing them all together to get the dish.

Boiling the potato is simple – many ways to do it. I simply used my instant pot – Add some water in the inner pot, put the steam rack and place the cut – halved or quartered – potatoes and cook in steam mode. Do a quick release and open the lid. The perfectly boiled potatoes are ready.

Boiling Potatoes in Instant Pot

You can use a pressure cooker, or microwave or regular water and potatoes in a pan to get the boiled potatoes. All are same. Simply peel the boiled potatoes and mash them with a fork or masher. DO NOT OVERWORK. Just roughly smash them, with still good pieces of potato are visible, perfect texture. Too smooth, the dish will taste a little bland even with all the spice and flavor.

Then the tempering. The recipe has mustard seeds, the signature of any Indian tempering of the savoring dish – so it is a must, along with the curry leaves. If you want you can add cumin seeds, some grated ginger, cashew nuts while tempering.

Finally, after you finish tempering, add salt, and spice powders and a little water. Once the water comes to boil, add the mashed potato, cook for a few minutes – it’s done. So simple and so good..

Check out the recipe below –

Easy Spiced Potato Masala/Potao Bhaji

Parveen’s Kitchen

A spicy, flavorful mashed potato with no cream, milk or butter but just spice and taste. This potato dish is not a smooth mashed potato, but has a flavorful texture that is suitable as a side dish for so many dishes like Poori, Chapati, filling for Samosa or Puff pastries.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, brunch, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Servings 4

Calories 230 kcal

Equipment

• Pressure cooker, instant pot or microwave or a sauce pan to boil potatoes
• A Pan or Kadai to make the masala

Ingredients

  

• 3 Large Potatoes Boiled, peeled and roughly smashed.
• 1 cup Water Add more if you want a thinner masala.
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 Sprig Curry Leaves
• 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds Optional – I do not use
• 1 tbsp Broken Cashews Optional – I do not use
• 1/2 tsp Grated Ginger Optional – I do not use
• 1 Medium sized Onion Chopped
• 2 Chopped Green Chilli Use whole if making the dish less spicy
• 2 Whole Dried Red Chilli Chop if making the dish more spicy
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder Skip if making the less spicy version of the dish
• 1 small Bunch of coriander leaves Chopped. Save some for garnishing

Instructions

 

• In a large pan or a kadai heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds and the dried red chilli. Let them splutter.
• Add the curry leaves, chopped onions, chopped green chilli and some coriander leaves. Fry them until the onion turns translucent.
• Add the salt, turmeric and red chilli powder. Mix well.
• Add water and let it boil.
• Add the mashed potatoes and cook until all the spices are combined with the potatoes and the masala slightly thickens.
• Serve hot with Poori. Or cool use as filling.

Notes

1. Boil potatoes using microwave or in a pan or instant pot. 
2. Do no mash the potatoes until smooth.. You need the texture in the dish, so roughly smash the potatoes.
3. Add cumin seeds, cashew nuts and ginger only if you like – they are optional.
4. Water is totally adjustable – more water if you want a thinner bhaji and less water if you want a thick masala.

Keyword Cooking made easy, Curry, Easy Cooking, Easy recipes, Indian cooking, indian curry, Instant Pot, potato masala, vegan, vegetable curry