Chtitha Batata (Algerian Potato Stew)

Ingredients

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• 4 clove Garlic
• 1 small Red Chilli
• 1 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1 tsp Paprika
• ½ tsp Black Pepper
• ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
• ½ tsp Salt
• 2 Tbsp vegetable broth 🛒
• 2 lb New Potatoes
• 1 Tbsp Tomato Puree
• Boiled Water
• To taste Salt

Method

1. Combine garlic, chile pepper, cumin, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, and salt in a mortar; grind with a pestle until it forms a paste.
2. Add vegetable broth and mix dersa well.
3. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and stir-fry dersa until fragrant, 2 to 4 minutes.
4. Add potato halves and stir to combine with the dersa. Stir in tomato paste.
5. Pour in enough water to just cover the potatoes and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 40 minutes.
7. Ladle potatoes into a serving bowl. Spoon any remaining sauce over the potatoes.

About the ingredients

Garlic Allium sativum

Garlic itself is canonical, but extract denotes a concentrated/isolated derivative outside the whole-food canon. Marketed as natural/healthy supplement, hence mistaken-as-WFPB flag.

Red Chilli Capsicum annuum

Fruit of Capsicum plants, used fresh or dried as a pungent vegetable/spice. Contains capsaicin, vitamin C, vitamin A/carotenoids, and vitamin B6. Whole plant fruit, no isolation or additions: canonical WFPB.

Ground Cumin Cuminum cyminum

Dried seeds of Cuminum cyminum, an apiaceous herb. Whole spice, mechanically harvested and dried; matrix intact whether whole or ground. Canonical whole-plant seed spice.

Paprika Capsicum annuum

Ground spice made from dried, milled red peppers (Capsicum annuum), ranging sweet to hot/smoked. Whole-fruit powder, no additions. Source of vitamin A (carotenoids), vitamin E, capsaicin. Minimally processed whole-food spice, WFPB canonical.

Black Pepper Piper nigrum

Dried unripe fruit (peppercorns) of the pepper vine, used whole or ground. A whole dried spice with nothing added or extracted. Canonical WFPB aromatic.

Cayenne Pepper Capsicum annuum

New World chili pepper, typically dried and ground into a pungent red powder. The whole fruit (minus inedible stem) is used. Rich in capsaicin, vitamins A and C. Whole-food spice, no additives. WFPB-canonical.

Salt NaCl

Crystalline sodium chloride, harvested by evaporating seawater or mining rock-salt deposits. Used as seasoning and preservative since antiquity—central to trade and food economies for millennia. A mineral, not a plant food, and a sodium isolate; noncanonical to WFPB.

vegetable broth

A salt-free, all-purpose vegetable broth. Onion, carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, kombu, parsley.

New Potatoes Solanum tuberosum

Potato is the starchy underground tuber of a nightshade (Solanaceae). Eaten whole/cooked it is rich in potassium, vitamin C, B6, and fiber (skin on). Whole potato: WFPB canonical (level 1). Refined forms (flour, fried chips) are noncanonical.

Tomato Puree Solanum lycopersicum

Cooked, sieved tomatoes reduced to a smooth concentrate; just tomatoes, more concentrated than juice, thinner than paste. Fiber/matrix largely retained. Plain form has no added salt/oil/sugar. Canonical WFPB whole-food preparation; rich in lycopene, vitamin C, potassium.

Water

Plain potable water (H2O). Universal solvent and culinary base, no calories or nutrients beyond trace minerals. Not derived from any organism; an unprocessed essential. WFPB canonical.