Aloo Gobi Inspired Stew

I’m not going to even pretend that I can make an authentic Aloo Gobi stew or soup, the famous Indian potato and cauliflower dish, but I do feel pretty safe thinking this dish is close enough that I’m happy to make it at home when I am in the mood. Close enough for me.

I’ve had this dish many times in restaurants and never really felt up to making it at home until I saw Brian Lagerstrom’s YouTube version of this classic dish. The video made it very accessible, but I also saw a few areas that I would want to alter to better fit my own needs and desires. So I did, I changed it up a bit.

One or two areas where my dish might stray from an authentic Aloo Gobi? First, I don’t know if the dish is supposed to be a soup, or a stew, or just potatoes and cauliflower with a thick sauce.

Which could be problematic until I realized that lack of knowledge freed me up to make it as I see fit, and I prefer something on the stew side. If you want something more soupy, I would add more water or chicken stock and drop the amount of tomato puree.

Another liberty I took was the addition of frozen green beans. I’m not saying that I made this up, just that there lots and lots of recipes already online for Aloo Gobi that don’t use green beans, and there are also a lot that use them. I like green beans in my curry, so I add them.

I also like frozen green beans more than fresh because they are already trimmed and more convenient and often more nutritious because they were likely frozen so close to having been picked and still retain the bulk of their nutrients. As opposed to many green beans options that are found at the grocery, that might have been in that bin for weeks, who knows.

One more area where I might be venturing off the authentic path? How about adding chicken? If I am trying to make a one pot dinner, I might be temped to add in some chopped chicken thighs. I already messed up the vegetarian option by using chicken stock, so I don’t feel too awful about myself for adding the thighs along the way.

I did not include the chicken version in these pictures or list of ingredients, but it would be very straight forward to include. I would cook the chicken first, just enough to get a nice crust on the thighs and leave some residue in the pan, remove them, and then proceed with the potatoes and the rest of the recipe as shown, adding the chopped chicken back in when you add the chicken stock in.

I’m aware that the name Aloo Gobi literally means potato cauliflower, so to skip one or the other would seem bizarre. But if you find yourself in the situation where you have a family member who loves Indian food, but is not a big cauliflower fan, as is the case in our house when the kids are home, it becomes very easy to skip one of the main ingredients and still end up with a very tasty Indian inspired chicken, potato and green bean stew!