Aloo achar in Croatia: a 10-minute Nepali potato pickle made with 5 supermarket ingredients

A cheap, quick potato achar to go with dal bhat, using ordinary Croatian shop ingredients and their Croatian names.

Published 2026-10-23 · Source checked 2026-10-22

Dal bhat is missing something, and it is usually the achar. Here is a potato achar you can make in 10 minutes after work, with items from any Croatian supermarket.

Shopping list with Croatian names: potatoes (krumpir), sesame seeds (sezam), lemon (limun), fresh or dried chilli (čili), fresh coriander (korijander) or parsley (peršin) as a stand-in, oil (ulje), salt (sol), and turmeric (kurkuma) if you have it. Sesame is often in the baking or health-food shelf.

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Step 1: Boil 3 medium potatoes with skin on for about 15–20 minutes, until a knife goes in easily. Cool them, peel and cut into small cubes.

Step 2: Dry-roast 2 tablespoons of sesame in a pan for 1–2 minutes until it smells nutty, then crush it roughly (a cup and a spoon works).

Step 3: Mix the potatoes with the sesame, juice of half a lemon, chopped chilli, a pinch of turmeric and salt. Heat a spoon of oil with a little chilli and pour it over for the tadka smell. Add chopped coriander.

What to do: serve it with dal bhat (see our dal bhat recipe) or momo (our momo recipe). It keeps in the fridge for 2–3 days. Which achar do you miss most: gundruk, mula, tomato or timur? Tell us in the comments on our Facebook page.

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