Aloo Palak or Potato Spinach Curry

Aloo Palak or Potato Spinach Curry is a Punjabi dish that goes well with traditional Indian breads like Chapati, Roti or Kulcha. It can go well with cooked Rice and some think it can accompany a South Indian preparation like Dosa as well.

Palak or Spinach has lot of iron content in it, while I can say that the Aloo or Potatoes contain vitamins, minerals and starch in them. So when both Spinach and Potatoes come together to form a delicious combo, we have a tasty, nutritious dish added to our menu. The procedure for making Aloo Palak Curry may be slightly difficult, but once prepared you will love the taste and will feel like going for it again.

The below recipe uses Baby Potatoes instead of normal Potatoes, but I have a sufficient instructions added to help use normal Potatoes as well. I sourced this recipe from Sailu’s Kitchen and minor changes to it. I prepared Aloo Palak or Spinach Potato Curry as a side-dish for Chapati that forms part of our everyday meal.

Nags has a version of this curry posted here which is just a little bit simpler than this one.

Time to Prepare: 45 min

How to Make Aloo Palak or Potato Spinach Curry:

1. Wash the Baby Potatoes. Prick the washed Potatoes with a knife or with the help of fork (will help cook better). Cook the Baby Potatoes in a pressure cooker adding a little salt along with sufficient water. Pressure cook until you hear 7-8 whistles. Remove from flame and allow the cooker contents to cool. Once the Baby Potatoes turn cool, peel the outer skin.
2. Heat 1 tsp of Oil and fry the cooked Baby Potatoes until they turn golden brown in color; keep them aside. Or if using normal Potatoes, just peel the outer skin and cut them into cube sized pieces and fry these Potato pieces in 1/2 tsp of Oil for few minutes.
3. Wash the Palak or Spinach leaves thoroughly. Heat a cup of water in vessel, add the washed Palak/Spinach leaves and cut Green Chilli and cook for 2-3 minutes. Take out the Palak/Spinach leaves and Green Chillies from water (leave the water in the vessel) and grind them to a smooth paste. Retain the water in the vessel for later use in Step 7 below. One can cook the Palak or Spinach and Green Chilli combination in microwave too.
4. Rest of the Aloo Palak or Potato Spinach Curry preparation happens in a medium sized frying pan. Heat Oil in the pan, add Cumin seeds or Jeera. Once the Jeera seeds splutter, add finely chopped Onions and Turmeric Powder and saute the Onions until they turn transparent or until they turn golden brown in color.
5. Now add the Ginger + Garlic Paste and fry for 2 minutes. Add Red Chilli Powder, Coriander or Dhaniya Powder, Garam Masala Powder and mix well.
6. Add Spinach-Green Chilli paste from step 3 to the pan and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add the cooked and fried Baby Potatoes or normal Potatoes from Step 2 to the pan and cook again for 10 more minutes.
7. Add sufficient amount of the water retained in Step 3 above (the water used for cooking Spinach/Palak) to the cooking pan. Note that it may take less water for the Baby Potatoes preparation, because Baby Potatoes are already cooked. Now add salt to the pan and cook again for 5 minutes.
   For normal Potatoes, before adding salt, add the full amount of retained water from Step 3 and cook for 15 minutes until the Potatoes turn soft. This extra step is not required for Baby Potatoes since they are already cooked.
8. Finally add the hand crushed Kasuri Methi or Dried Fenugreek Leaves and Milk Cream or Malai to the Aloo-Palak mixture and mix well with a spatula and cook on low flame for a minute and turn off the heat.

Now the Aloo-Palak is ready to serve. Serve Aloo Palak or Potato Spinach Curry with Roti, Chapati, Kulcha or with plain Rice.