This Indian baby potato salad is a spicy salad bursting with flavors. This recipe is from the eastern states of India where mustard oil is used in a lot of dishes. The sharpness of mustard oil is the best thing about this salad.
Salads don't need to be a boring and bland side dish with vegetables. It could also be a dish bursting with flavors and become the highlight of a meal.
Like this spicy Indian baby potato salad recipe. This recipe is from the states in the eastern region of India where generally people prefer spicy food and mustard oil is used to flavor a lot of dishes.
If you enjoy the sharpness of ingredients like wasabi or horse radish, you will like mustard oil too.
This salad is vegan and gluten-free.
What's needed to make spicy Indian potato salad?
To make spicy Indian potato salad, you will need the ingredients shown below:
Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions
- Potatoes: I have used baby potatoes but you can take any variety of regular potatoes. Just boil, peel, and chop them to use in the recipe.
- Onion: Use a red onion in Indian potato salad.
- Cilantro: If you don't like cilantro, skip it but don't use parsley in Indian salads. You can use fresh mint leaves and spring onion greens.
- Green chili: You can also skip it or remove the seeds to make it less spicy.
- Chaat masala: It's a blend of some Indian spices and is used to flavor many Indian salads and savory street food.
- Roasted cumin powder: Don't use regular cumin powder as roasted cumin powder and unroasted cumin powder taste quite different. You can make your own roasted cumin powder by roasting cumin seeds on a low flame until the seeds become fragrant. It will take 2-3 minutes only. Then allow the seeds to reach room temperature and grind them in a grinding jar. You can use this powder to flavor a lot of Indian and Middle Eastern dishes.
- Mustard oil: It's one of the key ingredients of this spicy potato salad. Mustard oil has a very sharp taste like horse radish and wasabi. Use it only if you like such flavors. If you don't want that sharp taste in your salad, add olive oil. If you don't want to add any oil to your salad, you can do that too. However, I love the sharpness of mustard and all the ingredients that taste like it. For me, the sharpness of mustard oil is the best thing about this salad.
How to make (step-by-step instructions)?
Step 1: Boil potatoes. Allow them to reach room temperature and then peel.
Step 2: Prepare the salad dressing by mixing mustard oil, lime juice, red chili flakes, ground black pepper, roasted cumin powder, chaat masala, and salt.
Step 3: Add boiled potatoes, chopped onion, cilantro, green chilies, and salad dressing to a bowl.
Step 4: Mix everything.
Your spicy Indian-style baby potato salad is ready to be served.
How to serve Indian potato salad?
You can serve this potato salad warm or at room temperature. It can be served as a side dish with any Indian meal.
I love pairing it with a simple Indian meal of rice and a dal like chana dal, moong masoor dal, sabut masoor dal, moong dal, or urad chana dal.
You can also enjoy it as a snack. To reduce the heat you may eat it with some yogurt or raita.
It can also be stuffed in wraps or made a part of buddha bowls.
Storing the leftovers
The leftover salad can be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for 2-3 days.
The sharpness of mustard oil in a dish increases with time so, if you are planning to make it in advance, add lesser mustard oil.
Recipe tips and tricks
- This potato salad can also be made with regular potato cubes.
- Mustard oil is the key ingredient of this salad. But, it has a very sharp and acquired taste. If you like the taste of ingredients like wasabi, horse radish, or mustard, the chances are that you will enjoy the flavor of mustard oil too. However, if you are using mustard oil for the first time use slightly less oil or mix it with some olive oil.
- You can skip green chili or remove its seeds if you want less heat in this recipe. It already has a lot of other ingredients to it that will add heat to heat i.e. red chili flakes, black pepper, and mustard oil.
- Chaat masala also has salt in it so add extra salt carefully.
- You can also add chopped cucumber and tomatoes to this Indian potato salad.
- For some crunch, add roasted peanuts or white sesame seeds to it.
Frequently asked questions
No, mustard sauce is very mild in comparison to mustard oil and won't give the same result.
Olive oil and mustard oil taste completely different. If you want to try the authentic taste of this spicy potato salad, use mustard oil. However, if you don't like the taste of mustard oil and want to make an Indian potato salad with milder flavors, use olive oil. You can also skip oil in that case.
More potato recipes
If you also love potatoes and want to try how it's cooked in different countries, do check out the following recipes.
More Indian salad recipes
If you liked this recipe and want to try some other Indian salad recipes then the following recipes are worth trying:
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in the recipe card below. You can also follow me on Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest.
Recipe
Spicy Indian baby potato salad
Equipment
- 1 Large cooking pot for boiling potatoes
- 1 large bowl for mixing the salad ingredients
Ingredients
- 500 grams baby potatoes
- 1 small red onion finely chopped
- 1 green chili finely chopped, optional
- 2 tablespoons lime juice adjust to taste
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon chaat masala
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1.5 tablespoons mustard oil
Instructions
- Wash, boil, and peel baby potatoes.
- In a bowl, mix mustard oil, red chili flakes, chaat masala, roasted cumin powder, black pepper, and salt. Keep the mix aside.
- Put the peeled potatoes in a large bowl.
- Add finely chopped onion, green chilies, and cilantro.
- Pour salad dressing and lime juice.
- Gently toss until all the potatoes get evenly coated in the dressing.
Video
Notes
- This potato salad can also be made with regular potato cubes.
- Mustard oil is the key ingredient of this salad. But, it has a very sharp and acquired taste. If you like the taste of ingredients like wasabi, horse radish, or mustard, the chances are that you will enjoy the flavor of mustard oil too. However, if you are using mustard oil for the first time use slightly less oil or mix it with some olive oil.
- You can skip green chili or remove their seeds if you want less heat in this recipe. It already has a lot of other ingredients to it that will add heat to heat i.e. red chili flakes, black pepper, and mustard oil.
- Chaat masala also has salt in it so add extra salt carefully.
- You can also add chopped cucumber and tomatoes to this Indian potato salad.
- For some crunch, add roasted peanuts or white sesame seeds to it.
- More recipe tips and tricks are shared in the post above, please follow them to make this recipe.
Potatoes and mustard seed oil are perfect together! I just made a potato salad with minced celery leaves (love that bright green flavor), green onion, and toasted whole cumin, fennel, and coriander seeds. I love biting into those seeds and getting that burst of flavor! I used Thai chili and along with the lime juice, some malt vinegar. So many people in the US and the EU are afraid of mustard oil. But now several companies are producing "food-safe" mustard oil. Even before that I'd go to my local Indian market and buy it even though it was labeled for "external use only." You just can't beat the flavor! Thanks so much!!!
Hi. Thank you so much for leaving this comment. You are right nothing can beat the flavor of good quality mustard oil 🙂