Potatoes were never so exotic, scrumptious! (3 MOUTHWATERING, YET EASY, RECIPES with an Indian accent!)

Whenever I think of my Aunt Rachna, I imagine her making aloo paratha, a fluffy, savory Indian bread stuffed to the brim with potatoes.

In her big, open kitchen in Dallas, she tosses a few rough-edged russets into a pot of boiling water, and as soon as the potatoes are soft enough to be easily pierced with a fork, she plucks them out, peels them and mashes them in a bowl until they're smooth and satiny, mixing in salt, red chile powder and crushed fennel seeds, which fill the room with a heady, sweet aroma. She divides them into baseball-size spheres and then, in a separate bowl, combines wheat flour, oil and water to make small circles of dough. The next step is like magic: She encloses one of the enormous potato balls into a disc of dough, like a parcel, rolls it all out, and the two become one - a paper-thin layer of dough outlining a bulky, piquant layer of potatoes. She quickly pan-fries the parathas, basting them with oil until they are blistered and glistening, and sets them on a plate, ready for me to devour while they're still steaming.

Many aloo parathas are mostly dough, with just a small amount of potato. But Rachna always taught me that this ratio should be flipped. The potato is the delivery vehicle for most of the flavor. Without it, the paratha is less exciting.

Growing up in an Indian vegetarian household, I deeply understood the power of the potato. And it wasn't just because of Rachna's lush aloo parathas. Potatoes figure heavily in many aspects of Indian cuisine and have always been a staple of my family's meals - boiled, baked, pan-fried, smashed and anything in between. My mom's go-to weeknight dish is aloo gobhi: roasted, charred potatoes and cauliflower coated in turmeric, ginger and onions. Her preferred appetizer for entertaining is baked miniature potatoes topped with sour cream and a tangy and bright combination of chaat masala, cilantro, onions, ginger and green chiles.

My Aunt Sonia is famous in our family for her pav bhaji, an ingeniously comforting carb-on-carb Mumbai street food featuring buttered buns topped with a spicy, coriander-heavy mashed potato gravy. When I was writing my cookbook, "Indian-ish," potatoes were such a recurring star in my recipes that I considered dedicating an entire chapter to them.

There are many ingredients and dishes, now considered staples of Indian cuisine, that actually came from abroad. Tea came to India by way of the British, samosas showed up from the Middle East, and kidney beans (also known as rajma) arrived via Latin America. Potatoes have a similar story. Landing in India around the 17th century by way of European colonizers, potatoes were soon cultivated throughout the country. It made sense: They were a perfect blank canvas for the vast array of spices and appealed as a filling main course for the large vegetarian population. Now India is one of the biggest potato growers in the world.

To my mom, a working parent, potatoes were - and continue to be - her bread and butter for putting together a quick meal. There's her simple, flavorful sabzi of crunchy bell peppers and potatoes cooked in a sweet, smoky pairing of cumin and fennel seeds, topped with lime juice and crushed peanuts. My mom fasts on Tuesdays to honor her parents' memory, and for her, fasting means not eating salt (there isn't a significance to abstaining from salt; it's just what her mother did). For dinner, she'll dress chopped, boiled potatoes simply with olive oil and red chile powder. I often re-create a version of this dish at my apartment in Brooklyn, though I always add chaat masala, for its funky, complex flavor.

But my all-time favorite preparation of potatoes in Indian cuisine is the smashed, spiced potatoes found inside a masala dosa, a tangy, savory crepe that's a signature of southern Indian cuisine. I love the earthy pops of mustard seeds, the crackle of the curry leaves amid the velvety potatoes and the creeping heat from the green chiles. The potatoes are my mom's preferred element of the masala dosa, too, so for my cookbook, she wrote a recipe just for the filling.

The first time I tried her take, I loved it as is - but with my book being Indian-ish I couldn't help but suggest an addition: a squiggle of ketchup. If there's anything I have learned being raised in the United States and eating more than my fair share of fries, it's that ketchup always has a place atop a potato, no matter its preparation.

RED PEPPER, POTATO AND PEANUT SABZI

ACTIVE: 30 mins | Total: 30 mins SERVINGS: 4

Here, crushed peanuts and a spritz (or more) of lime juice ups the ante on the classic Indian marriage of snappy, sweet red peppers and crisped potatoes. The resulting colorful, crunchy sabzi is an easy side you can make in a half-hour or less.

You can also double it for an excellent meatless main course. Even better: Warm up some tortillas and scramble some eggs, and you've got yourself an Indo-Texan breakfast taco party.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  
• 1 small yellow onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
  
• 1 large russet potato, cut into 1/2-inch dice (8 to 10 ounces; unpeeled)
  
• 2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch dice
  
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more as needed
  
• 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, crushed
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (from about 1/2 lime), or more as needed

Steps

Heat the oil until shimmering in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook, up to 1 minute, until they turn a medium shade of brown. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the fennel seeds until they are fragrant. Add the onion and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, until translucent.

Stir in the potato, then spread the mixture into an even layer in the pan. Cover and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the potato is tender and not mushy (a little charring on the bottom is okay). Stir in the bell peppers and salt. Cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the peppers are slightly softened.

Use a serving spoon or spatula to scrape up the charred bits from the bottom of the pan and stir them into the dish.

Stir in the crushed peanuts and lime juice. Taste and add more lime juice and/or salt, as needed. Serve right away.

Nutrition | Calories: 210; Total Fat: 12 g; Saturated Fat: 2 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 290 mg; Carbohydrates: 24 g; Dietary Fiber: 3 g; Sugars: 3 g; Protein: 5 g.

DOSA POTATOES WITH LIME AND KETCHUP

ACTIVE: 15 mins | Total: 20 mins SERVINGS: 4

Masala dosas - large, thin, savory crepes typical of South Indian cuisine - are one of the author's favorite foods, all because of the spicy, comforting, semi-mashed potato filling. Dosas are often enormous and could be difficult to eat in one sitting. So the author's mom came up with a version where the potatoes are the star.

While this preparation isn't strictly traditional South Indian, it's delicious and features lime and squiggles of ketchup - the former to cut through the richness of the potatoes, the latter because potatoes and ketchup are made for each other.

Where to Buy: Fresh curry leaves, asafetida, red chiles and red chile powder are available at Indian grocery stores.

Ingredients

• 2 large russet potatoes (about 1 pound total)
  
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  
• 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
  
• 10 fresh curry leaves
  
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  
• 1/4 teaspoon asafetida (optional)
  
• 1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
  
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  
• 3 dried red chiles
  
• 1/4 teaspoon red chile powder
  
• 1/4 cup water
  
• Lime wedges, for serving
  
• Ketchup, for serving

Steps

Place the potatoes in a small pot and add enough water to fully submerge them. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain, rinse with cold water and let cool for 10 minutes.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, use your hands to break them into 1/2-inch pieces.

Heat the oil until shimmering in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the black mustard seeds; as soon as they begin to pop and dance around in the oil, which should be within seconds, remove the pan from the heat. Add the curry leaves, making sure they get fully coated in oil (there may be more popping and splattering). The leaves should immediately crisp up in the residual heat. Add the turmeric, asafetida, if using, and the onion. Return the pan to medium-high heat, and cook, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes until the onion starts to become translucent.

Add the cooled potato pieces, salt, red chiles and chile powder, followed by the water. Cover and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and slightly mushy but still retain some of their shape.

Serve right away, with lime wedges and ketchup.

Nutrition | Calories: 230; Total Fat: 8 g; Saturated Fat: 1 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 300 mg; Carbohydrates: 36 g; Dietary Fiber: 3 g; Sugars: 2 g; Protein: 5 g.

RED CHILE POTATOES

ACTIVE: 10 mins | Total: 30 mins SERVINGS: 2

These potatoes, seasoned with chaat masala, are part of cookbook author Priya Krishna's weekly dinner tradition. It's a recipe that she adapted from a dish made regularly by her mother, Ritu Krishna.

Make Ahead: The potatoes can be cooked and refrigerated a day in advance.

Where to Buy: Red chile powder and chaat masala are available at Indian grocery stores.

Ingredients

• 4 small new potatoes or baby red potatoes (about 8 ounces total)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon red chile powder
  
• 3/4 teaspoon chaat masala
  
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (from 1/2 lime), or more as needed
  
• Kosher salt (optional)

Steps

Place the potatoes in a small pot and add enough water to fully submerge them. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain, rinse with cold water and let cool for 10 minutes.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, use your hands to break them into 1/2-inch pieces, placing them in a mixing bowl as you go. Add the chile powder, chaat masala and oil, tossing gently to combine. Sprinkle the lime juice on the top. Taste and season with a little lime juice and/or salt, as needed. Note that the chaat masala already has salt in it, so you may not need more of that.

Serve right away.

Nutrition | Calories: 150; Total Fat: 7 g; Saturated Fat: 1 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 140 mg; Carbohydrates: 20 g; Dietary Fiber: 2 g; Sugars: 2 g; Protein: 2 g.

Want more recipes? All three were adapted from "Indian-ish: Recipes and Antics From a Modern American Family," by Priya Krishna with Ritu Krishna. Buy it at a 35% discount by clicking here or order in KINDLE edition at a 46% discount by clicking here. Sales help fund JWR.

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