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.
For more delicious Potato recipes on blog are
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 powder
- 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.Â
- 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.
Good. Mix of masala combination
Hi ,
I have been following your recipes for quite sometime now. All my friends here in NJ, follow your recipes. I have actually made this recipe before but this time I got bite potatoes which are smaller then baby potatoes. My question is how much ingredients I should use? I have around 50 bite potatoes which weigh 680gms. What do you suggest?
Thank you!!
thank you shivani. you can use 250 grams of bite potatoes for this recipe. the rest of the ingredients remain same.
Another amazing recipe,absolutely mind blowing.Thank u so much….god bless you dear?wish I could give it ten star rating.?
Welcome Simone. Thanks for your positive feedback and best wishes.
Lovely recipe!
thanks meghna.
Hello dassana!
I love your blog… Whenever I search for a recipe and if it’s on your blog, it comes first and then I know I needn’t go further 🙂 Have made this recipe twice already in the last one month. It surely takes some time but well worth it.
lots of love,
ashima
thank you ashima for your positive feedback and kind words 🙂 glad you liked this vegan dum aloo recipe.
This is just an amazing recipe.. I tried it and that turned out to be very delicious.
I tried it in a modified way also.. I dipped the baby potatoes in a mixture of Maida, cornflour, Ginger-Garlic & green chillies paste and then fried them.. Remaining procedure was same.. That dish was also quite tasty but somehow I felt there wasn’t much crunchiness in the potatoes.. Can you give me any suggestions on this?
thanks sravani for the feedback. if you chop the potatoes in small pieces and the fry, the crunchiness will be there. when we fry batter coated veggies like potatoes or cauliflower, the more small they are chopped, the crunchier they become.
Thank you so much.. 🙂
hi dasanna,
I tried many of your receipies and they were delicious.
Is there any other way to cook the potatoes instead of shallow frying them??
thanks raji. you can parboil the potatoes. then pan fry them in some oil. this is one way. second is just to boil the potatoes and then add them to the gravy. the frying gives a crisp texture to the potatoes. for health reasons, you can just boil them and add to the gravy.
I like this
Dear dasanna,
Love your recipes & your hold-by-hand, step by step guidance. Many a time, your recipes have graced our home.
I have a question out of curiosity. When adding dry spices, why do you sometimes ask for them to be added one by one ? Will it matter if the stuff that goes in right behind each other is first collected in a small bowl & dumped in together ?
Another query. While making twice the quantity of any vegetable, is it as simple to double every ingredient you mention or are there complications involved ?
Thanks again for everything,
Michaela.
thanks michaela. in most recipes i add all of them together. could be in some recipes i have added them later. usually i add garam masala powder and dry mango powder later. other wise spices like turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder etc can be added all together. you can collect them in a bowl and then add or add one after the other in succession. garam masala is added last, as most store brought garam masala powder is made from roasted spices and then ground. so its kind of cooked before. so you add it at last. dry mango powder if added first gets reduced in it sourness. so in some recipes, where the sour element is required, its added last. for whole spices, depending on the recipe they can be added together or in steps.
a gravy or curry dish can have an unbalanced flavor profile if doubled. most indian home cooks use the method of approximation or eye balling the ingredient, when doubling or tripling recipes. so its better to make the recipe in the proportion provided in it.
The dal was awesome thanks for sharing the recipe
thanks chandraprabha
Hi
I have been using various delicious recipes from your website since past sometime. I really loved the way all these dishes have been made. Your preparations are not just delicious but simple as well. I am happy to visit the site always.
Thanks!
Tanu
welcome tanu. nice to know this. thanks for sharing positive feedback.
Hi can almonds (without skin) , also blanched like you mentioned for cashew , be substituted for the latter. Will this impact the taste/texture much?
Regards
anusha, blanched almonds (without skin) can be added in place of cashews. yes the taste will change but it will be good.
Can we substitute anything else in place of cashew paste due to nut allergy. Thank you.
A Ansari, try adding little khoya/mawa or milk powder. paste of melon seeds/magaz will also do.
Amit, while searching for holi special food I came to this site n have done the sabudana vada n hydrabadi biryani which were awesome!!! n will do the aloo dum n dal makhani restaurant style tomorrow… Ur receipts are very easy to follow…. Thank u soon much…..
welcome shital. glad to know this. thanks for sharing positive feedback.
It is really good in taste. Thanx.
welcome ritu