Aloo Posto Recipe

Aloo posto is a classic West Bengal vegetarian dish, made with tender potatoes cooked in a mildly spiced poppy seed (posto) paste, flavored with mustard oil and green chilies. Make it using my easy recipe.

What Is Aloo Posto?

Aloo posto is a classic dish from West Bengal: potato cubes cooked in a creamy white poppy seed (posto) coating, tempered in mustard oil with nigella seeds and green chilies.

In Bengali, aloo means potato and posto means poppy seeds. It is dry to semi-dry, mildly spiced, and naturally vegan and gluten-free. You will also see it spelled alu posto, posto aloo, or aloo poshto.

Confession: I don’t make posto paste anymore. I grind the seeds dry, freeze the powder, and stir it straight into the pan. My aloo posto has never been creamier.

There is a Bengali saying, “posto khele ghum ashe,” which means eat posto and sleep comes to you. One bowl of this with hot rice and dal, and you’ll see why.

I first made aloo posto because my son loved potatoes, and I wanted a potato dish that kept me interested too. I learned it from a Bengali friend’s mother. Every morning she ground her poppy seeds on a sheel nora, a flat grinding stone with a stone roller. Her paste was silk. Mine, made in a modern grinder, was gritty and stubborn. That’s how this powder method was born.

It is a niramish dish, which means it has no onion and no garlic.

How To Make Aloo Posto

Make Poppy Seed Powder

Step 1: Add 100 g white poppy seeds to a dry grinder and grind to a fine powder. I always grind a double batch because modern grinders can’t handle small quantities well.

Step 2: Measure out 50 g of the powder for this recipe. Freeze the rest in an airtight container for up to 6 months. You can use it straight from the freezer; no thawing needed.

Prepare The Potatoes

Step 3: Peel 500 g potatoes and cut them into ½-inch cubes. Keep them in a bowl of water until you need them, or they’ll turn grey-black from the air. Small, even cubes also cook through in the same time it takes the posto to lose its raw taste.

Make The Sabzi

Step 4: Heat 2 tablespoons of mustard oil in the pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers.

Step 5: Add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, ½ teaspoon nigella seeds, and 2 dried red chilies. Let them crackle for 3-4 seconds. Nigella burns fast and turns bitter, so keep the potatoes drained and ready before this step.

Step 6: Add the drained potatoes to the pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes. This coats every cube in the spiced oil before the posto goes in.

Step 7: Add 50 g poppy seed powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 2-3 slit green chilies, and ½ cup water. The water is what turns the powder into a paste right in the pan.

Step 8: Mix well so every cube is coated. It will look loose and pale, like the photo below; that’s right.

Step 9: Turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring every 4-5 minutes. Posto loves to stick to the bottom of the pan, so keep the heat low. Aloo posto is ready when the potatoes are tender, and the raw, grassy smell turns nutty.

Step 10: Take off the lid and cook until almost dry, with no water pooling in the pan. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve hot.

Variations

• With onion: Sauté ½ cup chopped onion after the tempering until light brown, then add the potatoes. (It’s no longer niramish.)
• Jhinge posto: Swap half the potatoes for ridge gourd (turai) cubes; they cook faster, so add them with the posto.
• Golden aloo posto: Add ½ teaspoon turmeric along with the poppy seed powder.
• Panch phoron tempering: Use ½ teaspoon panch phoron in place of cumin and nigella.
• Extra spicy: Add 1-2 more slit green chilies, plus a raw one on top to serve.

Serving Suggestions

The classic way is dal bhaat: Steamed rice with a thin dal like Bengali masoor dal.

For a festive Bengali thali, add crisp luchi, a plate of begun bhaja, and a wedge of Gondhoraj lebu (a fragrant Bengali lime).

On busy days, it’s just as good with poori or a plain tawa paratha.

Storage Suggestions

Aloo posto tastes best fresh off the stove, while the coating is still soft and creamy.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days; they travel well in a lunch box.

The posto firms up as it cools, so reheat it in a pan over low heat with a splash of water and a few drops of mustard oil, stirring until it loosens. I skip the microwave, as it dries out the coating and turns the potatoes rubbery.

Do not freeze it, as the potatoes turn rubbery when thawed.

Make-ahead tip: grind a double batch of posto powder and freeze it for up to 6 months. Then you can make aloo posto from start to finish in about 25 minutes.