28 February 2019
After touring through North America and Mexico, we’re finally back at KCC’s winter HQ in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We’ve been craving for something spicy and Asian and, with broccoli in season, decided on this take on the Indian classic aloo gobi.
You’ll probably be familiar with aloo gobi, which combines potato and cauliflower in a spicy sauce, if you’re a fan of food from the Indian sub-continent. Having eaten the cauliflower version numerous times, we started to wonder why we’d never come across the dish made with broccoli instead.
It turns out that broccoli is a fairly recent arrival to the tables of India – it was first brought to the country in the early 1990s by a farmer called Jitendra Ladkat, according to this article. So, therefore, there’s no great surprise that it does not feature as a mainstay of Indian cooking.
We served up our aloo broccoli with a split pea dal, brown rice and some flat bread and can thoroughly recommend it as an alternative to the tried and tested aloo gobi.
Ingredients (for 3-4 servings)
- 400 g small potatoes
- 400 g broccoli florets
- One small red onion
- 200 g tomatoes
- 50 ml cooking oil
- Spices: one teaspoon each of cumin seeds, coriander, chilli powder, turmeric, six cloves, one star anise.
Method
- Cut the potatoes into quarters and put into a pan of boiling water and simmer over a low heat for five minutes, then add the broccoli, cover the pan and cook for another five minutes.
- Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and add the cumin seeds, cloves, star anise and cinnamon stick. After five minutes add the chopped onion and cook over a medium heat. Add the coriander, chilli powder and turmeric and mix well.
- Add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes over a low heat and then add the cooked broccoli and potatoes. Mix well and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve with rice, dal and flat bread. The dish tastes even better if left overnight and reheated as this allows time for the flavours to blend.
Knidos Cookery Club 