As the title says, ‘Chukauni’ is an extremely popular pungent and spicy yogurt-based potato salad dish from the Western part of Nepal, especially the Palpa region. This is traditionally a spicy dish, but you can adjust the spiciness according to your taste.
Total Preparation Time: 1 hour (Including Potato Boiling)
- 2 lbs potatoes (red or gold)
- 1 medium size onion (red onion preferred), diced
- 1 Serrano pepper (or any chili you have or preferred) deseeded and chopped
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 tablespoon salt (or acc. to your taste)
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder (spicy preferred)
- 2 ½ cups yogurt (plain and thick, flavored yogurt can be used)
- 1 ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 ½ tablespoons mustard oil (preferred, other vegetable oil can be used)
- ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 pinch of Sichuan Pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard powder
Directions
- Boil the potatoes until they are fork-tender. Peel and cut into small pieces.
- In a mixing bowl, add 2 ½ cups yogurt and beat for a few seconds.
- Add salt and chili powder (adjust according to your liking)
- Mix in cilantro and chopped serrano pepper
- Add 1 teaspoon of ground mustard seeds
- Squeeze the juice of ½ lemon.
- Heat 2 ½ tablespoon mustard seed oil in a small pan. When the oil is hot, add ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds. When the fenugreek seeds turn the darkest brown, turn the heat off and add 1 ½ teaspoon turmeric powder and a pinch of Sichuan pepper (Timur) powder. Adding Sichuan powder is optional but it gives chukauni a pungent taste and smell.
- Pour the oil, turmeric powder, and Sichuan powder blend over the potato yogurt mixture.
- Mix diced onion into the mixture.
- Transfer the chukauni into a serving bowl (or platter), garnish with cilantro, and sprinkle some chili powder to add a burst of color.
Enjoy the spicy goodness!!!
Some useful Tips: Use good quality potatoes. Often time, big russet potatoes that you buy don’t taste good in salads. I mostly use small gold potatoes, red potatoes, or Yukon gold potatoes, but russet potatoes should taste great if they are new harvest. The softer (not mushy) the potatoes cook, the better the dish is going to be.
If your yogurt is naturally sour, add less lemon juice. If you have very fresh yogurt, increase the amount of lemon juice. If your yogurt is too thick (if using Greek yogurt), add few tablespoons of water. Beat the yogurt before adding other ingredients. Beating yogurt blends all the lumps to give chukauni a smooth consistency.
Do you have some leftovers?
GREAT!!! It tastes even better the next day. Don’t forget to store it in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.
Visit BG’s Kitchen & Garden on YouTube for other recipes.
