Hail the Indian kitchen!
Chana Masala with Spiced Amaranth Potato Patties
Perfectly crispy potato amaranth patties in the most flavourful, yet simple chickpea curry. Entirely vegan and guaranteed to satisfy your savoury cravings.
Introduction
Whenever I can’t decide on something to make, I almost always resort to making Indian food. There is so much joy in the making of a dish filled with so many spices, yet such simplicity in its process – with curries that is.
This dish is just a little bit more hands-on, but it’s well worth the extra effort. I was inspired to make this dish after eating something that resembled it at Manarat Al Saadiyat, an art gallery, in Abu Dhabi. It blew me away, but was just a little bit on the salty side so I knew I had to recreate it at home so that I could add another dish to my staple recipes.
So here it is! Crispy Amaranth Patties with a perfectly spiced chickpea curry – most similar to Chana Masala. This recipe is pretty flexible, so you could easily substitute the potatoes with sweet potatoes and the amaranth with quinoa. I’ve tried making the patties with quinoa and they turned out exactly the same, with just a little bit more bite.
To top it off I highly recommend using fresh garnishes like cucumber, lemon pickled onion, (plant-based) yogurt, and avocado. But, you can also try it out with something a little sweeter like date chutney or pomegranate seeds!
Let me know what you think of the recipe, and if you happen to post a photo on instagram I would love to see it so don’t forget to tag #cocosgreendeli. Bon appetit!
Ingredients
Potato Amaranth Patties:
- 5 medium potatoes
- ½ – 1 cup amaranth or quinoa
- 1/3 cup cilantro (finely chopped)
- ½ onion (finely chopped)
- 2 inch ginger (finely minced)
- 1-2 chilli peppers (depending on how hot you like it)
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- Salt
- Pepper
- Coconut oil for frying
Chana Masala Stew:
- Coconut oil for frying
- 1 onion (finely chopped)
- 4 garlic cloves (finely minced)
- 1 chilli pepper (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon all spice
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 tomatoes (roughly chopped)
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- Salt
- Pepper
Toppings (Optional):
- Cucumber
- Avocado
- Pomegranate seeds
- Macerated red onion
- Yogurt
Instructions
Chana Masala Stew:
- Add coconut oil to a hot pan, add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté the onions until soft.
- Add the garlic, chilli pepper, and garam masala and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, cinnamon, and all spice and cook for five minutes.
- Drain the chickpeas and add the chickpeas to the pan along with the vegetable broth.
- Let simmer for 15 minutes and add/adjust seasoning as per taste
Potato Amaranth Patties:
- Boil the potatoes until tender, drain and coarsely mash.
- Meanwhile, cook the amaranth as per package instructions, drain and add to the mashed potatoes.
- Add the cilantro, onion, ginger, chilli pepper, cumin, coriander, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Make patties, the size is entirely up to you (but the smaller the higher the crispy:tender centre ratio!).
- Add coconut oil to a hot frying pan and add the patties once the oil is hot, you may have to do this in a couple batches.
- Fry the patties on both sides to your liking, remove, and voilaaa.
- Now spoon some of that Chana Masala stew into a bowl, along with a potato patty or.. three.
- Optionally you can add avocado, cucumber, macerated onion, pomegranate seeds, and (plant-based) yogurt. Enjoy!
Notes
You can always omit the chilli peppers if you aren’t a big fan of spicy
