Potato Rice
As the name says Potato Rice is a stir fried dish of rice, diced potatoes, spices and herbs. It is an easy to make plant based meal and can be eaten with plain yogurt or a raita and a veggie salad. My boys fondly call this as “Aloo Rice”, where aloo is the Indian/Hindi word for potatoes. At home, it is a staple for a quick dinner or a school meal & everyone loves it.
About Potato Rice
In this post I share the recipe with precooked rice but you can also make it with raw rice/ uncooked rice and make a one pot meal. If you don’t like potatoes you can also make this with sweet potatoes or mixed vegetables.
This post is more for sharing an idea rather than a recipe. So get creative and adapt this method to make a rice dish with with whatever you like – paneer, green peas, baby spinach, eggs or shrimp or even left over shredded curried chicken or roasted chicken.
I use basmati rice to make this, you are free to use any other of choice like short rice, brown rice or other choices like quinoa, cooked millet or even noodles. But it is essential to use something that does not become sticky. So aged basmati rice is what I prefer here.
I often find making this kind of rice dishes easier with precooked rice rather than making a one pot meal. Because I get some time to prep up the veggies while the rice is cooking. Since this is a kids’ friendly dish, the spice levels are low to medium, increase the quantities if you prefer hot and more flavor in your potato rice.
I love using whole spices for a punch of flavors and because I always have abundant in my pantry. Feel free to omit them if you don’t have.
Step by step Instructions
1. Wash and cook rice without making it mushy. I generally cook rice with lot of water in an open pan for making this kind of rice dishes. Drain the rice to a colander once cooked. For a step by step guide you may check this basmati rice post.
2. While the rice cooks, peel and cube potatoes to ½ to ¾ inch cubes. Add them to a bowl of water so they don’t get discolored. Slice an onion. Heat oil in a wide pan. Add whole spices and let them sizzle in oil for a minute. You may omit if you don’t like them.
3. Add garlic or ginger and sliced onions. Saute till the onions turn transparent, don’t need to brown them as they get sauteed further with potatoes.
4. Add potatoes and fry till they are soft cooked and roasted well. If you want you may splash little water and cook them covered.
5. Stir together red chili powder, garam masala, turmeric, mint leaves and salt. Saute for a minute and turn off the heat.
6. Add cooked rice, squeeze lemon juice and mix well. Taste test and adjust salt as required. If you want to up the heat levels, add a bit of black pepper.
Serve potato rice hot with plain yogurt or a veggie salad.