Sweet potato fry, South-Indian style dry subzi made with sweet potoates and simple spices in your pantry. A delicious side to rice dishes.
This Sweet Potato has a love-hate relationship. Some like it for its mild sweet taste and how well it mingles with spicy taste, whereas others hate it for the same reason. At home, husband loves it, my elder one is OK with it, whereas younger has to be force fed.
Both my kiddos enjoy sweet potatoes when it is not in its usual form like this Sweet potato tikki or this scrumptious vegan burger made with sweet potato patties . I have even masked sweet potato into a chocolate cake
I usually say, being vegetarians we can’t be saying no to all the vegetables. This sweet potato fry is made with very limited ingredients, all you need is your regular sambar podi or else red chili and coriander powder and salt, to make this finger-licking dry subzi.
The ingredients
- Sweet potatoes, we are 4 member family, so i buy 2 large sweet potatoes for us, when peeled it weighs around 700-800 grams.
- Spices, i have used curry podi in this recipe, you can also use regular sambar podi or even just red chilies for the spice
- Oil, mustard seeds, hing/asafoetida, curry leaves and salt, regular ingredients used in the recipe.
How to make sweet potato fry?
There are many ways to cook sweet potato curry, but this is my way of doing it. I first peel them, chop them into 1 inch cubes. It is easy if we cut them into thick roundels and each roundels into thick sticks and each stick into cubes.
I will be posting a video for this recipe, where i have shown how i chop them. After chopping, i parboil them in the microwave. You can do that on stove-top too. In microwave i cook it in high for 10 minutes exactly. This will make the sweet potatoes fork-tender, still retaining the shape.
It is ok to cook a little less time, but do not exceed the said 10 minutes, you will end up with soft potatoes, which will turn mushy when we saute it with spices. if parboiling on stove top, turn off the gas once the water starts to a rolling boil, keep it covered for 10 minutes, that should make it fork-tender.
Once parboiled, drain the water completely. Then we have to just temper it with mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves and coat the parboiled sweet potatoes with spices. The sweet potato curry is ready in 15 minutes. Pair this finger licking dry subzi with rice.
Sweet potato fry | South-Indian style dry subzi
Ingredients
- 700 grams sweet potato Weighed after peeling the skin
- 2 teaspoon
curry podi /sambar powder/red chili & coriander powder see notes - 2 teaspoon oil any vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds /kadugu
- ¼ teaspoon hing/asafoetida
- few curry leaves
Instructions
- Wash the sweet potatoes and peel them. Chop them into 1 inch cubes. I usually chop them into thick roundels and then chop each roundel into ¾ sticks and each stick into cubes.
- I usually use the microwave to parboil the sweet potatoes. Take the chopped cubes in a microwave safe bowl, add water to cover them completely. Add turmeric powder and mix well. Microwave cook them for 10 minutes at power high.
- Do not cook them more than the given time, they might turn mushy. Cook them a minute or two less, but not more than the 10 minutes. The sweet potatoes must be fork tender, when you poke them with a fork it should go through them easily.
- If cooking them on stove-top, then once the water comes to a rolling boil, switch off the gas and keep it covered for 10 minutes. This should get them to fork-tender stage.
- Once done, remove them from stove-top/microwave and let it sit for 2 minutes. Drain them on a colander. Let it sit until it is completely dry.
Let us make the curry
- Heat oil in a kadai/pan, when it is hot add mustard seeds, let is splutter, next add hing and curry leaves.
- To this sizzling hot tadka add the drained sweet potatoes. Mix it well to coat the tadka
- To this now add curry podi/Sambar powder or red chili and coriander powder and salt.
- Mix well cover and cook for 5-8 minutes in a medium flame. If you smell that the curry is burning, remove the cover and mix it once. This helps to escape the rawness of the spices and also the vegetable to soak in the spices.
- After the said time, remove the cover, mix once and let it be on the stove for another 8-10 minutes in medium flame, without cover, toss it once or twice in between.
- Once the curry turns golden brown, take it off the stove. Serve it with rice.
Video
Notes
- The sweet potatoes can be parboiled either in the microwave or on stove-top. Make sure you don’t over cook them. They should retain their shape.
- You can use curry podi, if you dont have curry podi, use your regular sambar masala. if you dont have sambar masala, add equal amounts of red chili powder and coriander powder (1 teaspoon each)
- i have tried the same curry with all the above masala’s it tastes good.
Disclaimer
I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.
This spicy sweet potato dry subzi can be served with rice dishes. I typically would serve with Tomato-garlic rasam and Kootu for a comforting meal.
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