Vegan Bombay Hasselback Potatoes Recipe – Quick and Easy Curry Potatoes

These easy vegan Bombay Hasselback Potatoes are deep in Indian flavours without being too hot on spice.

They’re roasted until golden and crispy and are an ideal side dish to any saucier curry recipe, like our daal. Next time you fancy a curry, put away the take out menus and try making this Hasselback Potatoes recipe instead. We’re sure you’ll love it!

Both freya and I have a decent understanding of Indian cuisine. In fact, Freya grew up eating her Indian Grandad’s incredible curry recipes. He passed down his love and knowledge of food to his son (Freya’s dad), who then passed on it to her. As for me, I’ve had the pleasure of trying their food, but Freya and I also took a long trip through India a few years ago. We ate so many delicious dishes, and I learn so much about the day to day food that’s eaten by Indian people.

India is a vast place, full of many different recipes and food traditions. 

When we visited India, we spent most of our time in Deli and travelling through Kerala. I’m confident saying I know what authentic southern Indian cuisine tastes like in general. That being said, we aren’t experts on all aspects of Indian cuisine, just that we have an understanding of how many Indian dishes should taste.

There are so many amazing Indian chefs you can discover online; one of my favourites has to be Madhur Jaffrey.

She’s a complete authority on authentic Indian cooking. If you’ve got access to the BBC iPlayer, there’s an incredible series in their archives of Madhur Jaffrey cooking her way across India that I totally recommend. It makes for excellent relaxing weekend morning watching.

To be completely honest, this recipe is far from authentic, but that’s not to say it isn’t delicious. It’s a combination of a dish invented in Sweden (Hasselback potatoes) and a recipe that’s arguably more British than Indian (Bombay potatoes). Although this dish isn’t one that you’d find in many households in India, it’s been created with those delicious, classic Indian recipes and flavours in mind. 

Potatoes are a common ingredient in Indian food and can be found in many well-loved dishes.

Hasselback potatoes are excellent at carrying flavour, due to all the little slices. This means they have more surface area for all those lovely flavours. Not only can you rub the spices all over the outside of the potatoes, but you can also get right inside the potato. Because of this, we decided to make a spiced oil rub, which can get all the delicious spices deep into the centre of the potatoes. The oil also helps the potato crisp up, becoming gorgeous and golden.

Bombay Hasselback potatoes are an impressive looking dish.

For what isn’t a lot of effort, you can get an exceptional result. Although it may look a little daunting or time consuming to make all those cuts, it’s very simple. You can get all sorts of kitchen gadgets to help you cut a Hasselback potato, but they’re not necessary at all. A top tip is using a couple of wooden spoons. Place the potato in between them, then when you slice through, the spoons stop the knife going all the way through the potato. With the confidence to know that you’re not going to accidentally ruin one of your potatoes by cutting all the way through, with some speedy knife skills, cutting the potatoes doesn’t take as long as you might imagine. I found it quite relaxing once I started.

We made sure not to make these potatoes too hot in terms of spice. Since this Hasselback potato recipe is designed to be a side dish, which can be used to replace rice or bread, they need to go well with a main. By keeping with spices that add depth and complexity instead of heat, we’ve created a recipe that’s delicious, and perfect with spicier curry recipes. One of my favourite things about this recipe is an addition that Freya came up with, which is leaving the mustard seeds whole. I thought it would be best to grind them up, but in the end, they turned out to be delicious extra little crunchy bits.

Although our Bombay potatoes aren’t spicy, they are delicious with a little bit of vegan yoghurt drizzled over them. 

Not only does it add some appealing visual contrast, but it makes them creamier when you bite into them. We created a raita drizzle recipe to go with these. We love the refreshing cucumber and herbs in combination with all the spices on the potatoes.

These Hasselback potatoes are:

• 100% Vegan and dairy-free
• Delicious as a side
• Easy to make
• A good replacement for rice or bread
• Full on spice, but not on heat

If you liked this recipe why not try:

• Indian Inspired Vegan BBQ Vegetable Skewer
• Vegan Chicken Tikka Onion Bhaji Burger
• Easy Vegan Daal And Kachumber

Print Recipe

Easy Vegan Bombay Hasselback Potatoes with Raita

These easy vegan Bombay Hasselback potatoes are deep in Indian flavours without being too hot on spice. They are roasted until golden and crispy and are an ideal side dish to any saucier curry recipe, like our daal.

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 50 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

Servings: 4 sides

Ingredients

For the potatoes

• 10 potatoes
• vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic grated
• 1 inch ginger grated
• 1/2 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp mustard seeds optional

For the riata drizzle

• 100 g plain yoghurt dairy-free
• 5 g mint finely chopped
• 30 g cucumber grated
• 1/2 lime
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• salt

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
• Add all the ingredients for the Bombay potatoes to a bowl (garlic, ginger, onion powder, turmeric, cumin, garam masala, chilli powder, salt and ground mustard seeds) and stir.
• Place the sliced potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle the Bombay spiced oil mix all over the potatoes, making sure to get it in between each potato slice. You can use your hands to ensure it gets in all the cracks.
• Place in the oven and roast for 50 minutes until golden and crispy.
• Whilst the potatoes are cooking, make the riata by combining the dairy-free yoghurt, mint, cucumber, lime, cumin and salt in a small bowl.
• Once the potatoes are cooked and are lovely and crispy, remove them from the oven. Then serve with the raita drizzled over the top.