Priya Makes Red Pepper and Potato Sabzi

I'm really glad that it's just

Why do I need vegetables?

Sola and Brad in the test kitchen

and no one to judge me for my bell peppers.

You know what I mean?

Bell peppers?

I love bell peppers.

Thank you, oh my God, yes!

Did you see the video where

Andy like throws away my bell peppers.

And people have a bad opinion about them

because they go to the supermarket,

I completely agree!

they get one that's been sitting in a

yada yada warehouse I don't know.

[upbeat music]

All right we're making a red pepper potato and peanut sabzi.

This is like a very quick six ingredient dish

that my mom kinda threw together on a week night

when she was short on time.

So, I mean a sabzi is kind of a all encompassing word.

It can refer to just like vegetables themselves

but as a dish it refers to sauteed vegetables.

And you know there are a lot of really classic sabzis,

I've made aloo gobi for you that's a sabzi.

But when my mom immigrated here

she discovered new vegetables and new combinations

and was like what are different combinations

of vegetables and spices that I can do.

What are new sabzis I can make?

And red pepper and potatoes she just thought

went together really well.

Potatoes just like soak up spices really nice,

they're kind of a sabzi staple

and the bell peppers are this like

very sweet kinda spicy al dente crunch in the mix

and it's just like a really beautiful combination.

Okay, so we're gonna go medium-high heat at first

and we're gonna heat up our oil.

Agee, olive oil, avocado oil,

choose your own adventure.

My mom really likes the way that olive oil

tastes in this dish

because it's this really nice like

fruity sweet contrast to the kinda like rustic

earthy taste of the potatoes.

In general my mom is a big fan of olive oil.

So we're gonna have the heat on about medium-high

and that's kinda what you want when you're blooming spices.

This process happens really quick so you just wanna be

watching, smelling,

making sure your spices aren't burning.

So here we go.

Here we are.

If you're nervous about burning spices

which I was when I first started cooking Indian food,

is I just worked on a lower heat.

My mom toasts spices on high heat

because she is a maniac and I'll never do that.

Fun thing about fennel seeds is you can eat them whole

as a natural breath freshener.

Yes, I know I said that about cardamom pods

but it's also true about fennel seeds.

Like you go to Indian restaurant

you'll see like a big thing of often times like

candied fennel seeds that you can just take and eat.

I wouldn't recommend doing that in an Indian restaurant

'cause it's usually kinda like the bar peanuts

where everyone's stuck there hand in.

My mom always used to be like,

Oh what?

Oh, you want one?

My mom always used to be like there's pee in there.

So fennel seeds in Hindi, really easy.

I didn't know what they were in English

for a really long time.

It's saunf

and then cumin seeds are jeera.

Onion, pyaaz

I always imagined pyaaz as this like

cool new kid in school.

This is pyaaz.

Alright so we're adding our fennel seeds

and then we're gonna also add our onions.

Oh, the sizzle.

Truly why isn't everyone making Indian food.

Just the smell of onions toasting in spices.

Does this just feel like deja vu whenever I come on here

and it's like alright she's gonna

put the oil and the spices and the onion and the lime juice.

There's lime juice coming don't worry.

Okay, so when you cook fennel seeds,

so when you taste them it's like

this sweet floral note but when you cook them

you get a different smell entirely.

I'm trying to describe this to you,

it's like a little bit kind of like a

funkier almost like mushroom-y type of note to it.

It just like completely changes it's character,

especially when you mix it with onions.

Cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and onion are like

a Holy Trinity upon which you can kind of

add a lot of things.

Like I could put spinach here, I could do broccoli,

I could do carrots.

I'm gonna just let this hang of another few minutes.

Okay, our onions are sauteing.

They're getting nice and translucent.

We're gonna add the potatoes,

and we're gonna add the peppers.

We're gonna add the potatoes first and let them cook

because they take a bit longer

and then we're gonna add the peppers.

The point of adding the peppers a little bit later

is one they cook in a shorter time,

two we want them to be a little al dente

'cause that's how I like my peppers.

Wow this kind of smells like fajitas,

doesn't this smell like fajitas?

Are you getting fajita vibes?

You just want to spread them into a single uniform layer

before you put the dhakkan on.

[laughing]

Alright that's gonna be about five to seven minutes.

So yeah, oh, these are perfect.

I firmly believe that you want to

burn your potatoes a little bit.

'Cause that these like burny bits on the bottom

are like kind of make potatoes taste really good.

We're gonna throw in our red peppers

and then we're gonna add a teaspoon of salt.

So now I'm just gonna turn the heat down a teeny bit

and we're gonna cover them for like three more minutes.

Yeah dhakkan back on

and we're going to crush the peanuts.

[laughing] Wow. Too slow!

These are just roasted unsalted peanuts

literally that blue lidded planter's thing that you get.

What is it that bottle you get will do,

just make sure they're not salted.

Can you toast these peanuts if you want like a little

extra peanutiness?

Definitely.

I'm just gonna give these a rough chop.

But shark movies it's just they're just too absurd.

They're just absurd enough.

And like you know, if you really do study sharks like

they don't wanna hurt humans.

Zombies, they want to hurt humans.

All right lets check on these peps.

Oh, hot.

I'm gonna give them two more minutes.

I'm gonna give them a teeny bit more salt too.

We are good to go.

Oh, oops.

Oh, no. [laughing]

[yells]

Sorry.

I grew up in Texas where we ate breakfast tacos.

My favorite breakfast taco was like,

flour tortilla, soft scrambled eggs,

like burnt ass potatoes, and cheese.

Is there anything better?

[twangy country music]

Alright so we're gonna just scoop up the peanuts

and put them in here.

No peanut allergies.

You really need to be more cognizant of allergies.

We could have killed someone in here.

Alright now we're gonna lime it up.

Oh, I love when my food turns out edible.

[laughing]

I don't know it's just like a huge win

when you taste your food and it is delicious.

Like no matter how many times you cook something

and you like become a cook book author,

you cook stuff on camera.

It's just like a nice feeling.

One idea is if you really wanna take this

to the next level get some flour tortillas,

soft scrambled eggs.

Put this in a breakfast taco,

it would taste so good.

I mean do we have tortilla, do we have flour tortillas?

Hey, Gaby.

Tortillas?

[Gaby] Look, it's your lucky day.

Huh?

Cheap three ninety-nine for my neighborhood.

[Priya] Oh amazing.

I'm just, we're just gonna go rogue here.

We have every kind of tortilla.

[Priya] Can we have flour?

[laughing]

We have, wheat is good-- Oh.

Whats your?

Oh my God, this is Gaby's video now

This is just.

Oh my god you do it directly over the fire?

You're like my mom, you're a wild woman.

Well lets put it, yeah, you should notice.

[Priya] this is exactly how we do rotis.

It's like we're making rotis except they're tortillas.

Yeah I mean I trust that this a stove to be clean.

[laughing]

We're gonna make a breakfast taco without the

essential component of the breakfast taco which is the eggs.

This is like the most Texas that I've ever gotten

in one of these videos.

Thank goodness Gaby and Rick are in the kitchen.

You can get high quality tortillas and queso fresco.

My mom is gonna be like what are you doing with my recipe?

And then I squirt?

Squirt a little nimbu.

Little nimbu.

Put more peanuts?

You can put more peanuts if you want,

it already has peanuts. Oh, cheese.

My hands like this? Yeah just crumble it.

My hands are blessed, they are always clean.

[laughing]

I tilt my head.

[Priya] Oh yeah, do your thing Gaby.

Yummy.

Really good.

These are good tortillas.

I just feel like people don't like

burn their shit enough, you know?

Like I just love the char, the flavor of char.

How else will you eat it?

With roti over rice. Rice.

Yeah roti and rice is pretty standard Indian food.

But yeah, you could put this over salad greens.

You can do whatever. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Gaby,

for making the tortillas.

I'm taking these to my desk.

Okay. Bye.

I mean without the banter it would have

taken literally 15 minutes.

Fennel seeds, cumin seeds, oil, onion.

you can literally use that as a blank canvas

for any vegetables.

But potatoes and peppers

happen to taste really, really good.

What else do you want me to say?

Also like in shark movies,

they're usually like pretty reckless.

They're just kinda going in there,

not really paying attention.

Probably drinking. They have open wounds.

Yeah, they're drinking it's just really irresponsible.