Aloo tikki is a crispy, delicious and popular north Indian street food snack recipe. It is prepared with boiled potatoes and few other simple ingredients. Tastes best with green chutney, red chutney. Vegan and gluten free. Aloo means potatoes and tikki means patty in Hindi. So alu tikku literally means potato patties. You can serve these crispy potato patties with spiced yogurt too.
Rinse and scrub 4 medium potatoes or 3 large potatoes thoroughly (400 grams potatoes or 2.5 cups boiled and mashed potatoes)
Boil the potatoes until just fork tender using on stovetop or instant pot or pressure cooker.
Take 3/4 cup poha in a dry grinding jar.
Pulse few times to make a fine powder. Remove to a plate.
In the same jar add 1 inch peeled ginger, 1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds, 2 green chillies and 1/2 cup cilantro or coriander leaves.
Grind to a coarse paste. Do not add any water to grind, just make a coarse paste. You can also use a mortar and pestle.
Making Aloo Tikkis
Now to make aloo tikki, first of all peel the boiled potatoes.
Place potatoes in a large bowl and mash them very well with a potato masher or the back of a ladle.
To the mashed potatoes add the prepared poha powder reserving 3 tablespoons. Also add the ground green chili paste, 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder, 1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder, 1/2 teaspoon dry mango powder or amchur, 1/4 teaspoon chaat masala powder, 1/2 teaspoon anardana or crushed pomegranate arils, 1 teaspoon red chili powder and 1 teaspoon black salt.
Mix very well and form the potato dough. If the dough is very loose you can add the remaining poha powder or 2 tablespoons bread crumbs or chickpea flour or corn flour too.
Heat oil in a pan or large cast iron skillet or tawa. While the oil is getting heated we will shape the aloo tikki from potato dough. Divide the prepared potato mixture or potato dough into 12 equal balls and press them slightly to give cutlet shape. Do not make them very thin.
Once the oil is hot add 4-5 tikkis depending on the size of your skillet to the hot oil. Cook in medium flame for 2 minutes.
Gently flip and cook the other side for 2 minutes. Continue to cook until the aloo tikki turns crispy and golden brown. Flip and cook as required.
Remove the fried tikkis to a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb excess oil. Serve aloo tikki hot with chutney or sauce. See serving suggestions for more ideas.
Notes
1. You can use rice flour or corn flour instead of poha 2. You can double the recipe.