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Poppy seed potatoes and chicken kebabs: Nisha Katona’s recipes for home-style Indian favourites

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June 30, 2026 · 1:19 PM
Poppy seed potatoes and chicken kebabs: Nisha Katona’s recipes for home-style Indian favourites

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Nisha Katona’s aloo posto, or poppy seed potatoes. Photograph: Phoebe Pearson/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food styling assistant: Thea Hudson

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Nisha Katona’s aloo posto, or poppy seed potatoes. Photograph: Phoebe Pearson/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food styling assistant: Thea Hudson

Food

Poppy seed potatoes and chicken kebabs: Nisha Katona’s recipes for home-style Indian favourites

There’s a common misconception that Indian cooking is time-consuming and usually involves a dizzying number of ingredients, but these two home standbys show you can create magic in mere minutes

Nisha Katona

Tue 30 Jun 2026 01.00 EDT

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M y earliest memories are of cooking, sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s kitchen in Varanasi, northern India, dutifully combining water and flour to make dough or grinding spices between stones, both sensory kitchen tasks that became my playtime. The other kitchens of my life – those of my mother and aunt, my own kitchen at home and our restaurant kitchens at Mowgli – are still where I feel most at home, standing over a pot and conjuring aromas that waft through the house. There is a common misconception that Indian cookery is hard, and that for every dish you have to grind and roast and marinade, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: with a single stove ring, 20 or so minutes of fuel, one pot, a board, a knife and a spoon for stirring, you can create magic.

Aloo posto (poppy seed potatoes)

Bengali aloo posto takes the humble potato and elevates it to an exciting main course. We usually eat this with warm rice, simply mashing the two together with a touch of extra salt and a bracing green chilli to nibble on the side.

Soak 2 hr

Prep 15 min

Cook 25 min

Serves 4

50g white poppy seeds (posto), soaked in 250ml hot water for 2 hours

4½ tbsp vegetable oil, or mustard oil

600g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes

**½ tsp nigella seeds

1 dried red chilli**, broken in two

1 white onion, peeled and thinly sliced

**¼ tsp ground turmeric

¾ tsp salt

2 large green chillies**, halved lengthways, deseeded and finely sliced

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander, leaves and tender stalks

Drain the poppy seeds, saving 100ml of their soaking water, then put them in a blender with the reserved water and blitz to a semi-smooth paste.

Put three tablespoons of oil in a heavy-based, nonstick pan on a high heat, add the cubed potatoes and fry for seven to eight minutes, turning often, until golden all over. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the browned potatoes to a bowl.

Add a tablespoon of the remaining oil to the same pan, turn down the heat to medium-high, then add the nigella seeds and dried red chilli, and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the onion and saute for five to six minutes.

Return the potatoes to the pan, then stir in the turmeric and salt. Stir in the poppy seed puree and cook on a medium heat, stirring often, for seven to eight minutes.

To finish, stir in the final half-tablespoon of oil, the green chillies and the chopped coriander, and serve. If you like, add extra water to loosen the sauce to your desired consistency.

Reshmi kebab

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Nisha Katona’s reshmi kebab.

These gently spiced, soft and utterly delicious chicken kebabs were a favourite of mine and my brothers when we were growing up. When we travelled to India for the long holidays, our timid western palates often sought them out as a culinary respite from all the bold heat around us.

Prep 20 min

Cook 15 min

Makes 8**(to serve 4)**

**600g****chicken mince

1 small egg

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground white pepper

1 green chilli**, finely chopped

2½cm piece fresh root ginger (10g), peeled and finely grated

**2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 pinch saffron threads**, soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped

**½ tsp garam masala****½ tsp ground cumin

2 tbsp ground cashews**, or ground almonds

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander, leaves and tender stalks

2 tbsp butter, melted, for basting

1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

Heat a barbecue until hot and put eight wooden skewers in a bowl of water to soak; alternatively, heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6.

Put all the ingredients except the butter and lemon wedges in a food processor, then blitz until well combined. Tip out the kebab mix, divide into eight roughly equal pieces, then, using wet hands, mould each piece around a skewer, pressing it into an even thickness all along the length of the skewer.

Cook over the hot barbecue, turning frequently and basting with melted butter, until cooked through; if you’re cooking them in the oven, lay the kebabs on a baking tray and roast for 10–12 minutes, turning and basting with the butter at the halfway point.

Serve hot with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over.

  • These recipes are edited extracts from The Curry Bible by Nisha Katona, published by Penguin Michael Joseph at £28. To order a copy for £25.20, go to guardianbookshop.com

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  • FrogmellaMousetrap 53 minutes ago FrogmellaMousetrap 53 minutes ago 0 Seriously, check your employers' random drug testing policy before eating poppy seeds. I'm not joking. It could be a career-limiting decision. Reply

    • [ToothlessHag](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/113152204) [9 minutes ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175035492)   [ToothlessHag](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/113152204) [FrogmellaMousetrap](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/jul/01/poppy-seed-potatoes-chicken-kebabs-indian-recipes-nisha-katona#comment-175035332) [9 minutes ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175035492)      1     Even the white ones? I know advice is not let your dog eat the blue ones. But her job won't ever be on the line! [Reply](https://profile.theguardian.com/signin?returnUrl=https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175035492&componentEventParams=componentType%3Didentityauthentication%26componentId%3Dsignin_to_reply_comment)

  • wxcvbn 3 hours ago wxcvbn 3 hours ago 1 Is potatoes with rice a thing? They fill the same role in a meal Reply

    • [TishB101](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/102816586) [3 hours ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175034060)   [TishB101](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/102816586) [wxcvbn](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/jul/01/poppy-seed-potatoes-chicken-kebabs-indian-recipes-nisha-katona#comment-175033925) [3 hours ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175034060)      0     You find it in Bihar and Bengal. More times I've come across the potato curry being scooped up with rotis and chapatis. Always, though, the green chilli on the side. [Reply](https://profile.theguardian.com/signin?returnUrl=https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175034060&componentEventParams=componentType%3Didentityauthentication%26componentId%3Dsignin_to_reply_comment)         

    • [hutchmeup](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/109599275) [1 hour ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175035294)   [hutchmeup](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/109599275) [wxcvbn](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/jul/01/poppy-seed-potatoes-chicken-kebabs-indian-recipes-nisha-katona#comment-175033925) [1 hour ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175035294)      0     If you don't like that idea, wait until you find out about potato pizza.

But don't let anything put you off. It's a Napolese delicacy, for a reason. Reply
* Nijkerk 1 hour ago Nijkerk wxcvbn 1 hour ago 1 Potatoes and rice potatoes and roti potatoes and puri potatoes and dosa potatoes and paratha. Double carbs are to be found all over in India Reply

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