Indian Style SOLE Supper: Beef, Potatoes & Yogurt

My first box of locally grown organic food arrived on my doorstep from Spud. Its like getting “snail mail” except better, because its edible!

I have been browsing my cookbooks, earmarking all the good looking winter recipes, in preparation of my weekly SOLE (Sustainable Organic Local Ethical) posts. Ok, I admit, I didn’t just earmark my books, I also made a spreadsheet. I don’t normally outline my daydreams in excel (ok, maybe I do… sometimes) I’m just trying to ensure that I don’t bore my readers, or my taste buds, by cooking some variation of root vegetable soup, every week from now until April. 

I have been waiting for a friend to come over and show me how to make her fantastically good Indian curry, but she is pregnant, and has a toddler, and a full time job, and a house guest, so I think I may be waiting awhile. In the meantime, I have decided to make an Indian inspired meal with my food box.

The recipe for my potatoes came from my favorite “food porn” cookbook Fresh, by Michelle Cranston. Every recipe has a big, glossy, luscious photo. Since the potatoes I have are purple, I didn’t think they would do well in a creamy scalloped dish (it might look like a purple Martian sneezed on my plate). Dicing the potatoes and coating them in spices seemed the way to go.

For dessert, I made an Indian Chai tea with rich whole milk from a local organic dairy. I have the Chai recipe here if you would like to see which whole spices I used. 

Spiced Potatoes 

purple potatoes look a little like blood sausage, right?

Adapted from "Fresh" by Michele Cranston
Serves 3 to 4

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound of baby potatoes

1 large leek

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon dried chili flakes

1 teaspoon salt

1 lemon or lime for garnish and spritzing

Wash the potatoes well and then cut into bite-sized cubes, leaving the skin on. Cut the leek in half lengthwise, from the white tip towards the green end. Stop cutting before you reach the end, so that the leek layers stay held together. Rinse the leek under running water, gently washing away any diret in the layers. Slice into thin half-moon shapes.

Heat the oil in a deep cast iron or non-stick skillet. Add the leeks, potatoes, and all of the spices and salt. Cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of your cubes, until easily pierced with a fork. Serve with the quartered lemon.

Indian Style Beef Kebabs with Spiced Potatoes and yogurt sauce

Indian Style Beef Kebabs

Adapted from AllRecipes, Indian Style Sheekh Kebab by Yakuta

Serves 3 to 4

1 pound ground beef

1 onion

¼ cup cilantro

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoons salt

Skewers

Halve the onion, place in a food processor, and pulse for one second, 4 or 5 times. Add the remaining ingredients (except the skewers of course!), and pulse for one second, 5 or 6 more times. Scoop a handful of meat with your hands, shape into a sausage shape, around a skewer. Make 6 skewers.

Place the skewers on a broiling pan and broil on high, 2 inches from the heating element, until browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Turn and broil the other side until browned. 

Garlic Yogurt Sauce


1 cup of whole milk plain yogurt

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

¼ cup cilantro OR fresh mint, finely minced

Dash of salt and pepper

Combine the finely minced garlic and cilantro with the yogurt. Add salt and pepper to your taste preference. 

Really, the yogurt sauce stole the show for me.

SOLE Notes:

Organic milk from Fresh Breeze dairy (Lynden, WA), pasture-fed ground beef from Thundering Hooves (Walla Walla, WA), organic yogurt from Nancy’s Creamery (Eugene, OR), purple potatoes and leeks from Ralph’s Greenhouse (Mount Vernon, WA) , yellow onions from Anderson Organics (Othello, WA). All of my main ingredients were supplied by my SOLE suppers sponsor, Spud.com.