Punjabi Style Vegan Dum Aloo with step by step photos – This delicious vegan dum aloo is more restaurant like and not spicy-hot like the Kashmiri dum aloo.
This Punjabi dum aloo has a tang from tangy tomatoes and a sweet hint from onions and cashews and in combination with the usual Indian spices, what you get is a creamy and delicately spiced & flavored dish.
I have adapted this recipe from Nita Mehta cookbook “Taste of Punjab: hare bhare khetaan da khaana-vegetarian”.
Now this is a step by step recipe and this will give you an idea of how frying onion paste, tomato paste and cashew paste is so important for North Indian dishes. If you don’t do it properly, you won’t get the right flavors and taste in your final dish.
This recipe is made without curd. As a substitute for yogurt (curd or dahi), I have used lemon juice. However, the gravy would equally taste good with dairy yogurt or vegan yogurt.
You can serve it with roti or naan or jeera paratha or saffron rice or masala rice or jeera rice or rumali roti.
How to make Vegan Dum Aloo
1: The baby potatoes are rinsed, wiped dry, halved and shallow fried in oil till they get cooked completely.
2: In hot oil, black cardamom and cinnamon are added and fried till the oil becomes fragrant. Then add the onion-ginger-garlic paste.
3: Now brown this paste. The paste has to be browned before you proceed to the next step. This is an important part. If the onion paste is not browned well, the curry won’t taste good.
4: Add the tomato puree and stir.
5: After 3-4 minutes, add the spice powders.
6: Fry this whole masala paste till the oil starts to leave the sides. Another important step.
7: Now add the cashew paste. If you don’t have cashew paste then another excellent vegan option is almond paste.
8: Stir and fry again till the oil leaves the sides of the masala paste. Can you see the oil bubbles at the sides…
9: Add water and stir.
10: Bring the whole curry to a boil.
11: Add the shallow fried baby potatoes.
12: Simmer till the gravy thickens a bit and lastly add lemon juice and salt. Mix well.
Serve vegan dum aloo with roti or naan or tandoori roti or jeera rice or ghee rice. It also tastes great with steamed basmati rice.
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Vegan Dum Aloo (Punjabi Style)
Ingredients
- 10 to 12 baby potatoes
- 1 large onion
- 1 large tomato
- ½ inch ginger
- 2 to 3 garlic
- 2 tablespoon broken cashews or 10 to 12 king sized cashews soaked in water for 30 minutes
- 1 black cardamom
- 1 inch cinnamon stick (dalchini)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon Coriander Powder (ground coriander)
- 1 teaspoon fennel powder (ground coriander)
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice or 1 tablespoon curd (yogurt)
- 1 to 1.5 cups water
- 1 or 2 tablespoon coriander leaves for garnishing (cilantro leaves)
Instructions
preparation
- Rinse the baby potatoes and wipe them dry.
- Keep the peel on. Halve or quarter them if big in size or keep them whole.
- Shallow or deep fry in medium hot oil till they are golden browned and completely cooked.
- Grind the soaked cashew to a smooth paste.
- Grind the onions, ginger and garlic to a smooth paste. Also blend the tomatoes to a smooth puree.
making vegan dum aloo
- Heat 2 to 3 tbsp oil. Add the black cardamom and cinnamon.
- Fry till the oil becomes fragrant and then add the onion-ginger-garlic paste.
- On a low flame fry the paste till it becomes golden brown and the oil separates.
- This takes about 9-10 minutes.
- Add the tomato puree to the browned paste and stir.
- After 3-4 minutes, add the turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala powder, fennel powder one by one.
- Stir again and fry till the oil separates. Takes about 10-12 minutes.
- Now add the cashew paste and yogurt (if you are going to use yogurt, at this stage).
- Again fry the masala paste till the oil separates. This takes about 3-5 minutes.
- Now add approx 1 to 1.5 cups of water. Bring the gravy to a boil.
- Add fried potatoes and simmer for some 4-5 minutes till the gravy thickens.
- Lastly add lemon juice (if you are going to use this, at this stage). Add salt. Mix well.
- Garnish with some chopped coriander leaves.
- Serve vegan dum aloo hot with rotis or steamed basmati rice.
Notes
- As a substitute for yogurt (curd or dahi), I have used lemon juice. However, the gravy would equally taste good with dairy yogurt or a vegan yogurt. In the recipe details, I have mentioned at which step the yogurt needs to be added.
- In this recipe either use yogurt or lemon juice. Don't add both.
Your recipe rocks !!
thanks manjari. glad to know. happy cooking.
Beautiful recipe. Thanks
The recipe was easy to follow and was really tasty. Thank you.
thanks akanksha for the rating and review. glad to know. welcome.
Really tasty….. My family enjoyed…. Thanks
Welcome Hemal
Thanx for the recipe. It came out very well.
welcome vishnu. glad to know.