A soothing and comforting North Indian recipe for Butternut Squash and Potato Curry hailing from Rajasthan, featuring winter squash and potatoes using whole spices and ghee, served over fluffy basmati rice. With a video!
Happiness comes from within. It is not dependent on external things or on other people. ~Brian Weiss
As you can imagine, the food in India was mind-blowing. The combination of spice creates layers of complexity and flavor, taking ordinary vegetables to another level. This comforting dish was one of my favorites, for its use of simple winter squash and potatoes, subtle flavor and soothing effects.
Easy on the belly, yet nuanced with subtle flavor, they call it Aloo aur Kaddu (potato with pumpkin). This is a traditional Northern Indian recipe, using ghee (a must) and whole spices, but surprisingly no onion, garlic or ginger. This is intentional here- designed to soothe, relax and comfort the body, rather than energize it.
Once the ingredients are gathered, it’s very simple and easy to make, taking just 30 minutes. Serve it with Fluffy Basmati Rice for a simple wholesome vegetarian meal.
I love this recipe because once you get a feel for it, you’ll have a better understanding of traditional Indian cooking overall. It’s kind of mind-opening.
Rajasthani Butternut Squash Curry | 2-minute video
Trust the process. Prepare it on a day when you have to time to enjoy the experience. Like I said, it’s actually a very easy recipe, once the ingredients are gathered. A visit to an Asian or Indian store will probably be likely, or order spices ahead online, like on amazon. The leftovers get better and better as the flavors meld… happy lunches in store for you!
Here I’ve used 1 pound of pre-cut butternut squash ( larger 1 ½ inch cubes) and 1 pound of potatoes.
Always cut the potatoes smaller than the butternut squash, to help them cook at the same speed.
You could use all butternut if you like. Non-waxy potatoes work best here – russets or yukon golds, allowing more of the flavor to soak in.
In a large skillet, whole spices are toasted in ghee ( clarified butter) until incredibly fragrant.
And trust me when I tell you, the ghee absolutely makes dish. It really enhances the flavor. You could make this vegan, but it looses all magic.
Add a tomato, a few tablespoons yogurt, then the butternut, potatoes and water to steam. Cover and cook for 15 minutes until the butternut and potatoes are tender. The sauce is subtle, not at all spicy, comforting, delicious. The butternut will cook faster than the potatoes so cut the potatoes a little smaller, to help even out the cooking time. See recipe notes.
To me this is pure and total comfort food.
Ghee is surprisingly quite healing and soothing on the belly. It is butter that has been clarified-heated and then all milk are solids removed. Those who are lactose intolerant do surprisingly well with ghee, since all the lactose is removed.
For more info on ghee‘s healing and Ayurvedic properties, read this. It is quite interesting.
Hope you enjoy this very soothing and authentic Butternut and Potato Curry as much as we have!
Have a cozy weekend! xo
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Rajasthani Butternut Squash and Potato Curry
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: main, vegetarain, curry
- Method: stove-top
- Cuisine: Indian, Rajasthani, Hindu, North Indian
Description
A soothing and comforting North Indian Butternut Squash and Potato Curry hailing from Rajasthan, featuring winter squash and potatoes, using whole spices and ghee, served over fluffy basmati rice.
Ingredients
- 1 pound butternut squash or pumpkin or winter squash, cubed into 1 ½ inch pieces)
- 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes – cubed into 1-inch pieces – please see notes.
- 3 tablespoons ghee ( you could sub olive oil, but ghee absolutely makes this dish)
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 whole cloves
- 2 whole cardamon pods, broken open ( green if possible)
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (optional)
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds ( black mustard seeds if possible)
- ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (or sub 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves-add with tomatoes)
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon asafoetida powder (optional)
- 1 medium tomato, diced with juices
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice (or anchor powder-mango powder)
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
( You want a total of 2 pounds squash and potatoes combined.)
Serve with Fluffy Basmati Rice
Instructions
- Prep your winter squash and potatoes- making sure potatoes are cut a little smaller than squash-see notes.
- Gather all your spices together, the cooking part will go fast.
- In a large, heavy bottomed, or cast iron skillet, heat the ghee over medium heat.
- Add the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, whole cloves, smashed cardamon pods ( including shell) , nigella, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds and sauté until they begin to crackle.
- Add the yogurt, chili powder, cumin, coriander, ground turmeric, optional asafoetida powder, and fry 3 minutes.
- Add the tomato and its juices and the lemon juice. Cook 2 minutes. Add water, salt and stir.
- Add the potatoes and the winter squash, give a stir, cover tightly and simmer gently 15-20 minutes until tender. Check for doneness. You want the potatoes to get tender, being careful not to overcook the butternut… so continue simmering covered, until potatoes are fork-tender, adding a splash more water to loosen up the flavorful sauce.
- Give a final stir, turn over onto a serving dish, scraping out all the goodies out of the bottom of the pan, piling it over the squash and potatoes. Remove the bay leaves if you like, or use them as a garnish.
- Serve with Fluffy Basmati Rice.
Notes
You want a total of 2 pounds squash and potatoes combined.
Cut potatoes smaller than squash, because they take a little longer to cook. Use peeled russets, or a non-waxy potato-like yukon ( a “drier” potato) for the best texture. With thin-skinned potatoes, you won’t need to peel. Waxy potatoes like red, or small whites, don’t allow the flavor to soak in quite as much and take a bit longer to cook.
Keywords: potato curry, aloo kaddu recipe, pumpkin curry, butternut curry, rajasthani food, Rajasthani kaddu, indian potato curry, north indian curry, curried butternut
hi, many thanks for this delicious and flavored dish. I prepared it in advance of tomorrow’s dinner party and it tastes really good. i also added a half onion, ginger.
My comment : i cut the butternut squash in too big pieces so next time i will make smaller cubes.
one question : i have no sauce left, wouldn’t be too dry if i serve it with rice? should i had a bit of lemon juice or tomato sauce while i re-heat it tomorrow or do you recommend to serve it with a dipping sauce, such as a yogourt sauce ?
many thanks
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The Raita would be nice!
SO very good – !!, easy to make, and keeps well, too.
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This is a go-to in our house now and it reheats so well as leftovers! Question though, sometimes my yogurt curdles even though I wait to put the lemon juice in – how do you stop yours from turning into micro-blobs?
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Huh. Interesting. Mine does not curdle. Are you using low fat or zero fat yogurt by chance?
For a protein hit I added a tin of rinsed chickpeas during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Will be adding this one to the rotation. Thanks for another lovely recipe Sylvia!
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Delicious and fragrant, thank you for sharing this recipe. I have come back to this, a household favourite many times and have also added to it/tweaked the recipe to taste. I add a couple of cloves of garlic and a thumb sized piece of ginger and a large onion. Also works well with the addition of other veg such as cauliflower, red cabbage, green beans to increase nutritional value. Yummy!
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Oh my goodness! This is SO good and so easy. It’s become one of our favourite dinners. Thank you so much!
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Glad you enjoyed!
Yet to try. Recipe seems easy to prepare and very tasty. Right up my street. My kind of food.
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Thanks Gabriella!
I make curry often and was taught by a ann Indian woman with Rajasthan roots over 35 years ago. This must be one of the most delicious I have ever made. The complexity of the spices is extraordinary.
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Thanks so much Leon, I really appreciate this!
My daughter loved this recipe! (Even though she didn’t really care for the cooking smell) I followed the recipe as written. It was fast and easy & it tasted sooooh delicious. Thank you for sharing! It’s great to have a new way to eat squash. I’ve been inspired to experiment with a vegetarian/vegan diet.
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Thanks Wendy I’m glad you both enjoyed!
have to say this was absolutely fantastic all flavours were balanced we had to omit the cardamon as both allergic, don’t omit the nigella seeds the flavour level is fantastic. This is a definite keeper thanks Sylvia xx
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Yay!!! so you happy you liked… one of my favorites.
Made this recipe tonight and it was amazing!! Super simple to prepare and it was fun shopping for spices I’ve never used before.
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Wow. Just wow. I had no idea how flavorful this would be without the onions and garlic. Ghee is my new best friend.
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This was a joy to make. I was not sure about no onions so I added a sliced red onion at the start and it worked well. Thank you for a delicious non-meat recipe.
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Thanks Elaine I’m glad you gave this a go and liked it. I know, the recipe has no onion or garlic but still has so much delicate flavor- it surprised me too.
Cooking it now, but curious — why no garlic or onion. Always seemed a staple of Indian recipes. Is this a regional thing? Thanks.
Hi Elena, I know it seems strange but it was how I learned it while there. I was surprised at how much flavor it had with out the onion and garlic.
There’s a Jain diet followed by many in India that excludes onion and garlic – they’re seen to make people irritable – so they use hing powder as a substitute 🙂 (my neighbours mum follows the Jain diet and told me about it)
Yes, I’ve heard that too. And also certain times of the year, they cook without onion and garlic (believed to be overly stimulating) for religious holidays, right?
Is it possible to make and freeze this?
I think so??? Haven’t tried it, but seems like it should work.
What a beautiful blog you have. Every dish looks so appealing
Thanks Sharon, so sweet!
I made this last Sunday night for dinner and we absolutely loved it! The spices with the squash and potatoes were so yummy. This is a definite keeper recipe and I’m trying to figure out how to make it for our upcoming ski trip, but we’ll have 8 people! I think I would need to quadruple it, and doing that would require multiple pans. Any ideas?
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Hi Lisa, I wonder if you made a big batch of the sauce on the stove, then poured all of it along with potatoes and butternut into a large baking dish, covered with foil, and baked it? I have not tried it, but I don’t see why that couldn’t work???
That just might work! Thank you!
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Delicious – I was so excited when I saw you were going to India and have been anticipating some great recipes. This did not disappoint! Had all the ingredients on hand and it went very fast given that I had everything prepped/measured before I started. Thanks so much – can’t wait for more to come.
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This was yummy. The only thing I did not have was the nigella. I did have to cook this about 3x as long as the indicated (15 minutes). I used a yellow potato (not yukon gold, per se). My 3-year-old refused to eat this meal at first, but with a dessert bribe he ended up gobbling it and really enjoying it.
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This was delicious, especially with fluffy basmati rice. The key is the ghee. We served it with wilted spinach, drizzled with sauteed garlic, ginger, cumin and coriander seeds and one chopped tomato.
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Delicious! This is my new go to comfort dish. I will have leftovers for breakfast with some greens and two fried eggs tomorrow. Yum! I can’t wait. Next time I will buy butternut squash already cubed to save time. I was surprised it took much longer for the potatoes and squash to get done than the 15 minutes stated in the recipe, but I was not disappointed after tasting and mine looked just as pretty as the photos.I used leftover basmati rice that I cooked in coconut milk and spices. It only added to the wonderful rich flavors. This really is a simple dish to make. I used all the ingredients listed with the exception of asafeotida and nigella seeds because I didn’t have them on hand but I will find them and use next time. I hope to see more recipes like this.
So glad you enjoyed it!
This looks amazing! What type of potatoes did you use in the photos? Also, did you peel them or leave the skins on? Thanks so much!
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This looks wonderful, Do I dare sub chunks from leftover pumpkins for the butternut?
I think pumpkin would would great here!