Bhatia Aloo Sabzi (Quick Potato Curry)

About this recipe

This is the potato curry of quiet days, the kind a Bhatia kitchen makes from three things: boiled potatoes, a tomato, and the spices already on the shelf. No onion, no garlic, just cumin, hing and amchur doing the whole work. It's the fastest sabzi in the repertoire, and maybe the most useful—good hot with puri, good cold in a thepla the next morning. The potatoes must already be boiled; you're not cooking them from scratch. Cut them into cubes and you're ready to go. The tomato puree is the only vegetable; everything else is spice and heat. Let the oil separate from the tomato—that's the sign the base is ready—then the potatoes go in, along with water. A loose gravy, something you can pour. Amchur is the secret here. That dried mango powder brings tartness without any moisture, the way tamarind would bring liquid. It's amchur that makes this taste like something, not just mashed potatoes in water. This is the everyday curry, the lunchbox curry, the kind that doesn't ask for drama but tastes like care. Keep it semi-dry and tangy and it's as good cold as hot. Next morning, roll it into a thepla with leftover bread, add a dollop of yoghurt, and you have breakfast. The curry will keep for four days in the fridge, and it freezes beautifully for up to two months.