Alu kauli tarkari (Nepali style potatoes and cauliflower)
A common dish of Nepal, cooked in a simpler way. A must try recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Cauliflower cut into big florets with stems
- 1 lb Potatoes large, peeled and cut into long big wedges
- 1/2 cup Green peas
- 1 medium sized Onion sliced
- 1 large sized Tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup Cilantro coriander leaves
- 2 tbsp Ginger and garlic paste
- 2 tsp Cumin powder
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Chili powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
Instructions
- Heat up a cooking pot, add oil.
- Add onions and cook until tender.
- Add ginger and garlic paste, cook for 1 minute while stirring.
- Add tomatoes, cumin, and turmeric powder. Cook for another 2 minutes while stirring.
- Add cauliflower and potatoes, followed by salt and chili. Stir and cook for 2 minutes in high flame. Then cover the pot with a lid.
- In a low possible heat settings, cook the vegetables until soft while stirring occasionally. It may take 12-15 minutes to get cooked. Poke the vegetables with a spoon to check the doneness.
- Add the green peas and cook for 1 minute.
- Serve warm garnished with fresh cilantro.
Ginger garlic paste
- Fresh ginger and garlic are peeled, and grinded in a mortar with pestle until paste.
- Alternately, a blender can be used. Just blend until puree with a tiny amount of water. Water helps to blend faster.
Notes
Alu kauli tarkari is one of the common vegetable dish of Nepal. Basically, potatoes and cauliflowers are cooked together with common spices like ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, cumin etc. It tastes even better with fresh green peas. To cook this dish, find the freshest vegetable and spices from the market. Sometimes we leave our old dry spices more many months while they get flavorless over the time period. So it is always good to have fresh ground spices. We can even grind our whole spices in mortar and pestle or a spice grinder prior to cooking. Never put water if it is gets dry and or about to burn. Just turn down the heat as lowest as possible. Cover the lid and wait patiently until cooked. Frequent stirring is necessary, but we are only folding, not stirring like a whipping action. This will break the break vegetables into pieces and loose the texture. Small sized cilantro leaves or micro cilantro helps to enhance the look and taste. Micro cilantro is very high in nutrition.
