Vegetables have always been bountiful in Bengal's fertile plains, criss-crossed by the Ganga, Padma and Bramhaputra rivers.
The Bhakti movement saw the rise of vegetarianism in Bengal, and since "Vaishnav"s did not consume onions and garlic, it led to a unique vegetarian cuisine with brilliant recipes, where the flavours of the vegetables shine through.
A market in Kolkata, or Dhaka or indeed any part of East India overflows with all kinds of leafy greens (shaak), and vegetables.
Having been through hard times several times in its history–famines, wars, Bengalis were forced to be resourceful. Every part of a plant–from its leaf, stem, flowers, fruits, the peels, to the seeds–everything is used in cooking, leading to some incredible array of vegetarian dishes in the world.
Vegetables have always been bountiful in Bengal's fertile plains, criss-crossed by the Ganga, Padma and Bramhaputra rivers.
The Bhakti movement saw the rise of vegetarianism in Bengal, and since "Vaishnav"s did not consume onions and garlic, it led to a unique vegetarian cuisine with brilliant recipes, where the flavours of the vegetables shine through.
A market in Kolkata, or Dhaka or indeed any part of East India overflows with all kinds of leafy greens (shaak), and vegetables.
Having been through hard times several times in its history–famines, wars, Bengalis were forced to be resourceful. Every part of a plant–from its leaf, stem, flowers, fruits, the peels, to the seeds–everything is used in cooking, leading to some incredible array of vegetarian dishes in the world.
with chholar dal (Bengal gram) stuffing
Deep-fried, puffy bread stuffed with a spiced green-peas-and-hing filling
The Bengali variant of the South Asian ‘khichdi’, made with nutty, roasted moong dal and fragrant gobindobhog rice.
A bright yellow, sweet Bengali polao redolent with ghee and garnished with fried cashews and raisins.
A pan-fried flatbread stuffed with a filling of mashed potatoes
Bengali-style curried new-potatoes cooked in a savoury, tangy sauce, and sprinkled with green peas.
Rice and crunchy veggies with a bengali twist
A Bengali deep fried pastry with a delicious filling of biuli’r (urad) dal spiced with fennel seeds, ginger and green chillies.
Savoury-sweet preparation of curried split Bengal gram
The queen of panchmishali tarkari
Bengali deep fried puffy bread
Potatoes in a nutty poppy seed gravy
Fried lentil cakes in a flavourful sauce
A fun, quick chutney with green papaya
with two variants
Bengali rice pudding with date palm jaggery
A Bengali cauliflower-and-peas curry
A medley of winter vegetables, slow-cooked in their own juices
A Tagore family recipe
Roasted moong dal with fresh, winter veggies
Curried bottle gourd
Chunks of paneer(cottage cheese) in a spicy, comforting sauce
A quick and delicate dal tempered with radhuni, a type of seed that is quite unique to Bengal.
A Bengali classic served with luchi
Perfectly seasoned, pan-fried brinjals
Crunchy batter-fried jute leaves
Bengali jackfruit curry
A Kolkata street snack of boiled potatoes
Curried cabbage with potatoes and peas
Waste nothing!
Onion fritters
Okra in a mustard-poppy sauce
Potol cooked with fragrant rice
Made with green unripe banana
Mildly flavoured kolaier dal or urad dal
Ground poppy-seed fritters
A mild, milky curry of bottle gourd
Light, fluffy, mildly-spiced chhana (cottage cheese) dumplings in curry.
A light curry with pointed gourd
A quick stir-fry of bottle-gourd peels.
Banana stem cooked in spices
Cauliflower florets steamed and batter-fried
Bottle gourd cooked with prawns
Banana blossom paturi
An easy shukto with green papaya
Fried potato peels
Bengali mashed potatoes
Light and midly bitter stew of summer vegetables
Bitter gourd and pumpkin stir-fry
Pumpkin vine cooked with a medley of vegetables
A stir-fry with onion-blossom stalk
A festive, decadent version of Bengali cauliflower and cottage cheese dalna in a ginger–cumin sauce.
A light, casual, alterntive to "basanti" pulao
or pakora