Thank you so much to the Idaho Potato Commission for sponsoring this post! As always, all opinions and endorsements are my own.
Wow. Talk about flavor. This Nepalese Potato Salad is, admittedly, not my recipe. It’s from the new cookbook Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked by Raghavan Iyer, and I think I’m in love. It’s spicy and packed FULL of delicious South Asian spices and flavors. Plus, it’s yogurt-based, so it’s healthier than most potato salads.
And the COOKBOOK! It has to be the greatest ode to potatoes I’ve ever seen, and today’s your lucky day. I have an extra copy and it could be YOURS! (Go to the bottom of the post to find out how to enter the giveaway.)
Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked has 75 potato recipes in literally every form you can think of, from all around the world. And it’s not just side dishes- it has salads, main courses, and even desserts that feature potatoes as the main event. It has plenty of vegetarian recipes, but it’s not exclusively vegetarian, and many gluten-free recipes since potatoes are a gluten-free, carbalicious (did I just coin new word?) favorite.
This recipe uses fingerling potatoes, which are perhaps the most adorable potatoes in the world. They are tiny and thin, and come in all kinds of varieties. Their skin is delicate, their texture creamy, and flavor subtle. They make the perfect complement to all the potent flavors and textures of the creamy yogurt and fresh spices and herbs in this recipe.
One of my favorite parts about this recipe was the use of whole spices, toasted and ground in a mortar and pestle. I’ve had a mortar and pestle for ages, but never got around to using it. So many traditional south Asian recipes call for grinding your own spices to get that true, authentic taste. This recipe certainly did not disappoint when it came to authentic taste, and grinding the spices was not as labor intensive as I anticipated (it was actually very easy!).
If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, or if you simply don’t want to drag it out of the corner of your closet, you can also grind the spices in a spice grinder (like a coffee grinder that you don’t use for coffee).
Now, for the rules of the giveaway!
If you want to own a copy of Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked by Raghavan Iyer, simply do both of the following:
- Leave a comment on this post below, answering the following question: what is your favorite way to use potatoes?
- Like Workman Publishing and Famous Idaho Potatoes on Facebook.
Easy, right? The winner will be chosen on March 1, 2017- entries are cut off at midnight on the last day of February! And if you don’t win, don’t be sad- you can still buy the book on Amazon :-) I’ll email the winner and post the name on here, as well as my social media.
Recipe for Nepalese Potato Salad below!
Nepalese Potato Salad
Equipment
- Mortar and Pestel
Ingredients
- 1 pound fingerling potatoes
- 1/2 cup green peas fresh or frozen, no need to thaw if using frozen
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
- 2 tablespoons mustard oil, mustard-canola blended oil, or canola oil (I used canola)
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt whisked until smooth
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Scrub the potatoes under cold running water and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Place them in a small or medium-size saucepan and cover them with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pan, and gently boil until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork or knife but still firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Fish the pieces out of the water with a slotted spoon and place them in a medium-size bowl.
- Drop the peas into the potato cooking water and boil them just to warm them up, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain them in a colander, give them a good shake or two to remove any excess water, and add the peas to the potatoes along with the onion.
- Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil appears to shimmer and smells quite pungent, sprinkle in the coriander, cumin, and fenugreek seeds. Allow them to sizzle and turn reddish brown, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle in the cayenne and turmeric, staining the oil with their sunny dispositions. Pour most of the oil out over the potatoes and peas, holding back the seeds in the skillet as much as you can. Scrape these seeds into a mortar and pulverize them into a coarse powder with a pestle. Or if you don’t have one, transfer them to a spice grinder (like a coffee grinder) and grind them. Scrape this blend into the bowl with the potatoes.
- Add the yogurt, cilantro, and salt to the potatoes and give it all a good stir. Serve at room temperature.
Notes
- This recipe published with permission from Raghavan Iyer's Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked cookbook.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Liz
I can’t find a mustard oil – is there something else I can use instead?
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yes, you can use canola oil instead (in the ingredient list above). Hope you like it!
Tina W.
Mashed potatoes!
2pots2cook
Oh yes ! I’m in! Thank you and have a pleasant day !
Kimmy Ripley
My favorite way to eat potatoes is by making a loaded baked potato soup in my slow cooker. I always join the Clean Bowl Club when I make that for dinner!
Barbara Manning
I like the idea of roasting and grinding whole spices. It’s works really well for me, keeping the spices fresher, longer. And, dry roasting then in a fry pan fills the kitchen with wondrous aromas! Once roasted and cooled, I grind then for the dish I’m working on. Yum. It works really well for cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and star anise, too. Thanks for this tip, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth
No joke about the aroma- my kitchen smelled AMAZING when I was fixing this! :-)
Barbara Manning
Niku Jagger — Japanese beef stew. Potatoes, onions carrots and a small amount of thinly sliced beef in a mirin and soy sauce broth. Flavorful, light and delicious. Some recipes call for sugar, but I think it makes it too sweet. A few bias cut fresh green beans give it a nice touch of color. Many recipes online, along with jokes about the Rolling Stones icon.
Margo
I love potato salad and this sounds so scrumptious, I have the cumin and the coriander seeds, just need to latch onto the fenugreek seeds! Can’t wait to try this. You always manage to come up with the loveliest & most tempting new recipes and they always appear so tempting! great photography!
WAY TO GO!
Hope Hill
Your recipe for potato salad sounds great. My partner loves mustard potato salad. Wil) try your version soon. Will let you know how it turns out.
Hope Hill
I love making a version of German potatoes by cooking a few slices of bacon cut into pieces drain grease and set aside bacon then add diced yellow and red onions and salute in 2 tbps. bacon grease then add garlic then add Yukon potatoes cut into about 1″ chunks and cook until slightly crisped and slightly soft (like hash) add bacon pieces back in and serve. My partner always lives it when I make these.
Georgette
Thank you for posting this recipe. I can’t wait to try it! We eat a lot of potatoes in our home… vitamin C, potassium, etc. Good stuff! One of my favorite recipes is home-made hash browns. Yum!
Cindy
I love roasted potatoes with some salt, pepper and rosemary sprinkled on.
Edye
I love using potatoes in soups and stews! :)
Diana Cote
My favorite way to use potatoes is to boil them with the skin on and then drain them, smash them a little so they crack open and get a little flat and then stick them on a cast iron pan with avocado oil or whatever oil i have and sprinkle salt, pepper on them and crushed garlic and fresh parsley at the end. They come out crispy on the outside, soft and creamy on the inside and full of flavor. :)
Linda Whittig
Oh that sounds amazing Diane as does this potato salad! Great. Now I’m hungry…