Yam fry recipe – sharing a family recipe of yam which has been a staple at my home for many years.
This lightly sauteed and spiced dish is made with Elephant foot yam or ‘Suran‘, as we call this tuber in hindi. This dish was and is a personal favorite. I often make this yam fry when I make sambar or rasam or even with dal.
I don’t know the origin of the recipe, whether its from the Kerala cuisine or Tamil Nadu. We have been following this recipe for a long time now and it is a family favorite.
To make this yam fry recipe, the yam is cooked or steamed till tender and then sauteed with spices and grated coconut. The dish does not contain ingredients like onions, garlic or ginger. Dry red chilies are added for seasoning and they give a nice smoky flavor to the dish. If red chilies are not available, then you can add green chilies.
A simple and delicious yam fry with flavors coming from the spices, curry leaves, red chilies and coconut. Few more yam recipes i make at times are:
Apart from serving elephant yam fry as a side dish, it also goes well with chapatis. Makes for a nice tiffin box lunch.
Few more tasty recipes for you!
yam fry
INGREDIENTS
- 3 to 3.5 cup chopped elephant foot yam (suran or zimikand)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)
- 1 to 1.5 tablespoon coconut oil or any vegetable oil
- 2 dry red chilies (sookhi lal mirch) - deseeded and broken or 1 to 2 green chilies, chopped
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
- 1 teaspoon urad dal
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
- 8 to 9 curry leaves (kadi patta)
- 3 to 4 tablespoon grated fresh coconut
- 1 to 1.5 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves (dhania patta)
- a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing)
- salt as required
- enough water for pressure cooking or steaming the yam
INSTRUCTIONS
pressure cooking yam
- Peel and chop the yam (suran) into cubes. Rinse them well in water.
- In a pressure cooker, add the yam, turmeric powder and a bit of salt.
- Pour enough water to cover the yam completely.
- Pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles or more till the yam has completely cooked and softened.
- Drain the yam and keep aside.
making yam fry
- Heat coconut oil in a frying pan. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal.
- Crackle the mustard seeds first and allow the urad dal to become a maroonish color.
- Then add the cumin seeds and stir.
- Add the broken red chilies, curry leaves and asafoetida.
- Saute till the color of the red chilies change.
- Then add the drained yam. Stir.
- Then add the coconut. Season with salt. Stir and saute for a few minutes.
- Lastly add chopped coriander leaves and stir again
- Serve yam fry as a side dish with sambar or rasam or with chapatis.
nice and easy
Hey…. Wonderful recipes!
Can i use frozen suran for this recipe?
Saee, yes you can use.
Hi dassana
I’m so fortunate to have found ur recipes online. It’s been lovely cooking few of ur veg recipes like tendli , yam and karela.
Especially the non onion and garlic recipes r great for ppl with ibs problems.
God bless u for touching a million lives.
Kp in touch.
Saba.
pleased to know this saba 🙂 thankyou for your positive words. god bless you too take care.
Hello! I have been following your website for recipes for about a month now. I must admit here that the pics of various stages in preparing a dish is of huge help to me. I am not an expert in cooking yet hence it helps me check if I am on track or not. I am missing that in this recipe or even the radish sambar recipe. Request you to kindly add them if you have it. Thanks a lot. Great efforts by you 🙂
thanks shyla for sharing positive feedback. glad to know this. when ever i make these recipes again, i will take step by step pics and will add them in the post.
Thanks a loot mam and 5 star for u….
thaks shash.
Dear mam,
Firstly I would like to thanks for teaching me a cooking….
Truely speaking I never knew cooking begining of my marriage life may b I just got married after my graduation if I need to have something good just run for restaurent as I don’t prepare good… in India my mom used to prepare watever I need but today m far from her …. It’s been 2 years of my marriage I just c net and used to try some… But unfortunately for my good luck I got ur website a month bak … . Now I can proudly say tat I know cooking just coz of u and just coz of u…. I prepared loot items from ur website al came good except besan ladoo bit raw smell… Food I prepared samber tadka dal suran stir fry upma poha aloo parata etc etc etc etc….. Frankly speaking I studied even to prepare a perfect ginger tea by u… Just I prepared in d Morg…. Even my husband is thankful for u…. Once again Hartley thanks for u dr….. Thanks a loot….. Ur d d best best best….
thanks shash for this very sweet comment. when i read such comment i don’t know what to reply. i just thank you and your husband from the bottom of my heart, for sharing such a positive and sweet feedback. it really uplifts our spirit.
Dear Dassana,
My mom pressured cooked the suran without adding salt and turmeric to it :'( … Is it okay to add it now and pressure cook it for a single whistle ? :O Or should i add turmeric and salt when adding chillies and curry leaves ?
yes tilika. no issues. you can also add turmeric & salt with the green chilies and curry leaves.
like it
Hi Dassana,
Looks yummmm! I love suran 🙂 The bhaji is very easy to make as well. I also add tamarind pulp and jaggery and trust me it tastes awesome. It also helps to reduce the itchyness of suran if any.
By the way, just curious to know, what is it on the rice in your photo? Is it sambar? It looks like garam masalyachi amti to me 🙂
thanks suruchi. i will give a try with jaggery and tamarind pulp. it is shallot sambar in the bowl on the rice.
Hi Dassana, what does elephant foot yam taste like? It is not available in England that I know of. Can it be replaced by sweet potato or a certain kind of pumpkin or squash? Thanks in advance for your help.
By the way I love your site and have learnt so much from it 🙂 the last time I checked a few days ago you had 170,000 likes on facebook, now you have nearly 190,000 so it seems I’m not the only one! 🙂 I love how helpful you are, and how you make everything you post seem do-able even for total beginners like me. I’ve been recommending your site for people wanting to learn vegan cooking
hi vicky, elephant foot yam has a taste like that of a tuber, but the texture is different. its not soft like potatoes and have a soft bite to them when fried. but when steamed well, they have a soft yet firm texture. difficult to explain 🙂 i make similar recipe with raw bananas and colocasia (taro roots). even potatoes and sweet potatoes will taste fine. you can also make the same recipe with pumpkin. i shall be posting a similar version with pumpkin in some time.
the fb likes are increasing organically. not sure how though 🙂 indian home cooked food is simple and healthy. there are plenty of indian vegan recipes that include fresh vegetables, lentils, legumes and rice. thanks for the recommendations, vicky.
Hi, I tried few of your recipes, yam stir fry, mushroom roast and sukhi arbi Ki sabji, all turned out tasty, and my husband who is very choosy about eating, enjoyed all of them, thank you very much, looking forward to try some more of your recipe’s.
welcome cynthia. glad to know that you and your husband enjoyed the recipes. keep visiting.
I’ve noticed that with suran there are usually 2 camps – the lovers and the haters. I’ve never met someone who liked suran half-way 🙂 I’m in the haters camp unfortunately. Or maybe whatever little bit suran I’ve eaten was not cooked nicely.
I know I’ve said this before but I really love your photography. It makes the dishes come alive 🙂
thanks preeti. may be you are right, the suran you have eaten was not cooked nicely. otherwise, we can make tasty dish from most veggies.
good morning akka……the elephant foot yam fry recipe pics looks cute n yummy…………….
can you please suggest me some good brand of edible coconut oil n how to buy it online……..as in our local market the coconut oils which are available are only used to apply on hair:-)
thanks deepak. in a super stores, in the organic section you will get edible coconut oil. you can also order online. there are many online stores… just check the one which delivers to your city and is closest to save carbon foot prints.