Potatoes in Creamy Yogurt Sauce (Dahi Wale Aloo)

This recipe for Potatoes in a Creamy Yogurt Sauce is just perfect for those times when you haven’t had a chance to get to the grocery store for fresh vegetables.  The hardest part is boiling the potatoes.  With the red of the tomatoes in the gravy and the green of the cilantro garnishing, it is a visual treat!


Ingredients:

Potatoes – 4 medium (boiled and cubed)

Oil – 4 tsp

Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp

Asofoetida (Hing) – pinch

Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp

Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

Green Chilies – 1 to 2 to taste (chopped finely)

Ginger – 1 tsp (finely grated)

Garlic – 3 cloves (finely chopped)

Tomatoes – 14.5oz can diced tomatoes or 3 medium (diced)

Dhaniya Powder – 1 tbsp

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Red Chili Powder – ½ tsp (to taste)

Paprika – ½ tsp

Salt – 1 tsp (to taste)

Yogurt – 1 ½ cups (well beaten)

Cilantro – finely chopped, for garnishing

Method:

  1. Heat Oil in a non-stick pan on medium heat.
  2. Add Cumin Seeds and allow them to sizzle.
  3. Add Asofoetida, Turmeric Powder, Curry Leaves, Green Chilies, Ginger and Garlic – allow to cook for 1 minute.
  4. Add Tomatoes, stir and cook for 3-4 minutes until Tomatoes are soft.
  5. Add Dhaniya Powder, Garam Masala, Red Chili Powder, Paprika and Salt – stir and cook for 1 minute.
  6. Add Yogurt and cook while continuously stirring for 3-4 minutes.
  7. Add Potatoes, stir and allow mixture to boil.
  8. Garnish with Cilantro and serve hot with Pooris, Chappatis, Spinach Paranthas or Rice.
  9. Serves 4-5

Tips:

  1. Canned diced Tomatoes may be used in place of fresh for a deeper red color.
  2. Water or Milk (1/2 cup) may be added if potato gravy is too thick or Yogurt is too sour.
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34 thoughts on “Potatoes in Creamy Yogurt Sauce (Dahi Wale Aloo)

  1. I beat the yogurt really well, but my yogurt became spotty when I finished cooking it. I don’t know how to describe it, but it doesn’t look creamy, it looks like millions of little lumps of yogurt. 🙁 what did I do wrong? Is this a temperature issue?

  2. My dear Girls,

    I simply love your website!:) I had the same issue and the yogurt got curdled..can we still eat it ..it tastes fine but doesn’t look that great..Has it become bad like it won’t spoil the stomach or anything right just because the yogurt gets curdled.. please reply as soon as you can..:)

    Thank you so much!

    1. Hi LtoCook,

      Sorry for the late response… The dish will still be ok to eat…it will not spoil the stomach. Heating yogurt is a bit tricky. Next time, you may want to add just a bit (1 tbsp) of chickpea flour (besan) to the yogurt before adding it in. It will help the curdling.

  3. mam i dont have paprika power … can i use kashmiri chilli paste.? do reply mam :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:( .. plz………
    thanks with regards………..

    1. Hi Preethy,

      Yes, you can use kashmiri mirch. Paprika is mainly used to get a nice color without making the dish too spicy.

  4. Hi Hetal/Anuja:

    thanks for the recipes. you girls are going a great job!!

    I had two questions regarding this recipe:

    a) When i tried this recipe, as soon as i added the curd, it curdled and started separating oil and water from the curd solids. I switched off the stove but I guess it was too late and it still became all curdled up and turned out kind of disgusting. How can I prevent this in the future? The same has happened before when I tried making kadhi a few days back.

    b) Is there an easy way of boiling potatoes properly??. I hate cooking them in the pressure cooker since they took too long to cool down OR end up overcooked, Hate boiling them in an open vessel since they turn out raw/hard from the inside and the once or two times Ive tried them in the microwave, they became gummy and sticky and virtually impossible to peel off, like they shrunk!.
    I mean there must be some easy way to boil potatoes to perfection right??

    Thanks,
    KLR

    1. Hi KLR,

      Yogurt has a tendency to curdle when heated however, it is okay in some recipes. If you don’t want it to curdle, you have to slowly add the yogurt, allowing the temperature to gradually increase (not all at once). You can also mix in just a bit of besan (chickpea flour) to the yogurt if you have trouble. In the case of the kadhi, you have to constantly stir it until it comes to a boil.

      Regarding potatoes, boiling them in a pot on the stove will give you results and texture that you can control (as opposed to a pressure cooker or microwave). Start by picking potatoes that are the same size or cut them into equal sized pieces (you can choose to peel them or not). Be sure they are clean from dirt and any spoilage. Place them in a pot and pour cold water over them (from the tap) – just about 1 inch over the potatoes. You can add salt at this time if you like. Cook the potatoes on high until the water comes to a rolling boil, then turn the temp down to low and continue cooking until the potatoes are tender enough to poke a fork right through. Drain the water and use for your recipe. The cooking time will depend on the size of your pieces – usually from 20 to 40 minutes.

      1. thank you Hetal. i tried adding besan to the curd and cooked the potatoes the way you suggested and the recipe turned out much better! Ketki

  5. What is the fatness of the yogurt in these recipes ? I always see these recipes, but when i try making them – yogurt disappears almost immediately. Why are you not telling people outright that its a very high-fat yougurt ? Because they dont sell anything higher than 3% fat yogurt where i live, and i wasted quite a bit of time, trying to find what i was doing wrong.

  6. Made this dish over the weekend and loved it. I added some partially cooked chicken thighs and let them cook the rest of the way in this sauce. Will definitely be making this again.

  7. Dear Hetal and Anuja,
    Hi,my name is Ashini and am from Srilanka.You guys are doing a great job.I had tried a lot of recipes which you have presented.Those were really good and came out really well.Well thank you very much.
    Also i tried this potato curry but i couldn’t find a good yogurt for it,so i added thick coconut milk,yet i guess it came well cuz my father gave very good comments for it.
    All because of you guys.
    Thanks again and god bless you.
    Love you.

  8. Hi Hetal & Anuja,
    I was looking for a recipe for bhindi curry. What do you think about replacing the potatoes with bhindi in this recipe? I really liked the yogurt based gravy.

    Thanks!

  9. Hi Anuja and Hetal,
    I also had the problem of yogurt curdeling, but used finally used a technique we have for when mixing eggs into hot milk mixtures to keep it from curdeling. You make sure the yogurt is room temperature and then mix a couple of tablespoons of the tomato mixture into the yogurt. This brings the temperature of the yogurt closer to the temperature of the tomato mixture. Then you can add the yogurt into the pan without as much curdeling. Hope this helps. You guys rock!!!

  10. Hi Hetal and Anuja
    Your receipes are very mouth watering. The only problem is the video. There is lot of buffering and half the things you say cannot hear due to buffering. It there anyway this can improve.

  11. Hi Lubna,

    The one thing I can think of is to reduce the amount of yogurt and mix milk into it before adding to the potatoes. This way, the yogurt will not be sour to begin with.

    I hate to say this, but this may not be an appropriate dish according to your tastes. It does come out quite sour.

  12. Hi,

    I tried this recipe yesterday and it came out quite good.I was wondering if I can add onions initially to reduce the combined sourness of tomatoes and dahi. I added milk but still it was a bit too sour. Please suggest.

    Thanks.

  13. Anuja,Hethal
    today I tried your dhahiwale potato curry.We liked it very much.Thank you verymuch.Theway u teach is very easy to understand.
    Keep up this work.God bless you both.

  14. Hi Richa,
    This dish does have spots of white in it…but to reduce it here are a couple of suggestions:
    1. try reducing the flame and then add in the yogurt.
    2. Make sure the yogurt is well beaten.
    3. Keep stirring.You are pouring cold yogurt into hot toamto mixture…so keep stirring.
    4. Try keeping the yogurt out for a while and allowing it to come down to room-temp.

    You will still be able to see the white specks but they will be very tiny. Hope this helps;-)

  15. hi hetal/anuja,
    i hav tried dahi wale aloo recipe in d same way u hav shown..but there was a problem…as soon as i poured well beaten curd in tomato curry it got curdeled…dat spoiled d look of my dish…cud u please suggest me way out so dat it wont repeat in future..

    waiting for ur reply
    richa

  16. Hi Arvind,
    In the video we talk about keeping the potatoes firm and not over-cooking them (example for Aloo Parathas or Tikkis), but you do need to boil them till they are cooked. The potatoes are on the stove for only 2-4 minutes, so that is not enough to cook them.
    Here are a couple of options for boiling them:
    1. Pressure Cook them for 1 whistle, turn off stove and release the pressure immediately under running water (be very careful while doing this).
    2. Microwave: In a microwave safe dish, put the potatoes, water and cover it tight. Put it in the microwave on ‘potato’ setting (most have it) or cook for 5-7 min increments and keep checking on them. My microwave takes anywhere from 12-15 minutes…depending on the size of the potatoes.
    3. Cook on the stovetop with water and a very tight lid and hope it gets done in about 30-45 minutes.

    Couple of tips for potatoes-
    1. use similar size potatoes…if some are big, cut them to halves or quarters.
    2. Peel while they are still hot but cut when they are cold (stick them in the fridge if you are in a big rush) so they don’t fall apart.
    G’Luck!

  17. Hi,

    You did mention that the potatoes are not completely boiled. Can you kindly tell me how do you boil the potatoes like that if I am using both a pressure cooker. Alternatively, if I am not using a pressure cooker how do I achieve that.

    Do apologize for asking these questions and hope you wouldn’t mind. Have to tell you your recipes is my survival. Keep up the great work.

    Arvind

    1. hey i saw your picture.Though i don’t know you,thought of passing my comment,cuz it looked so mouth-watering.Besides i made the same thing and my one was also similar to your one.
      Well done,
      Good Job.

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