While these three Indian dishes can also be served separately, they look and taste so nice together I’ve decided to make them part of this fragrant trinity. This trio consists of my own, slightly simplified, take on dum aloo potato curry, beetroot poriyal and fried pilau rice. It makes for a satisfying and healthy dinner and if you have a fancy lunchbox like I do, you could even take it with you for lunch!

Ingredients (for 2):

For the Dum aloo:

4 medium-large potatoes

1 400g can of chopped tomatoes

1 red onion

2 big cloves of garlic

1 fresh red chilli

1 chunk of fresh ginger, grated

sea salt

1 tsp mustard

pinch of ground coriander

dollop of cooling yoghurt to serve

2 tsp garam masala

For the beetroot poriyal

1 large raw beetroot

2 tbsp mustard seeds

1 large tbsp grated dried coconut (or use fresh if you can)

salt

(NB: other poriyal recipes also include green chilli and little black lentils, but since I didn’t have these on hand I decided to omit them)

For the pilau rice:

+/- 200 g basmati rice

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

butter (leave it out if you want it vegan)

cardamom

turmeric

salt

cumin

Dum Aloo Potato Curry:

• Peel the potatoes, cut in wedges and boil in the pressure cooker for 5 minutes.
• Fry them in oil with mustard (I didn’t have mustard oil, so I had to improvise a little!), sea salt and ground coriander until slightly golden brown, then set aside.
• Make a curry paste with the onion, garlic, ginger and red chilli. I was lazy so I left mine chunky, but if you add a little oil you can grind it into a smooth paste if you want to.
• Fry the mixture until it becomes golden brown and soft. Add the tomato cubes and the potato wedges and simmer for a while.
• Add 2 tsp of garam masala.
• Serve with a cooling dollop of thick yoghurt.

Beetroot poriyal:

• Peel the beetroot and grate it coarsely.
• Toast the mustard seeds in a hot pan until they start to jump. (Be careful, they will literally jump all over the place!)
• Add the grated beetroot and stir-fry until al dente.
• Season with salt and then stir in the grated coconut.

Pilau rice:

• Boil the rice in advance with salt and plenty of water.
• Drain and set aside.
• Sautée the garlic and onion with cumin and turmeric.
• Butter gives the rice a lovely creamy flavour, but you can leave it out if you are vegan.
• Season with plenty of turmeric, ground coriander, cumin and some extra salt if necessary. (You can also use whole spices, but I didn’t have them on hand. If you do, make sure to roast and crush them first to release their aroma and don’t forget to take out the cardamom pods at the end!)