BENGALI VEGETARIAN PLATTER – a long due post.
I wanted to do this post for a long, long time. I am not a vegetarian, and its super hard to find a Bengali vegetarian as fish and meat are heavily consumed in Bengal. My mom rarely cooked an entirely vegetarian meal because dad and she never liked any meal without fish. She cooked dal and veggies with fish or chicken but there were certain days (mainly religious holidays) when she used to prepare only vegetarian dishes.
A couple of weeks ago Manasi from The Hour Glass Mommy made our famous Eggplant fritters (Begun bhaja). She asked me to do some Bengali vegetarian dishes. Manasi, this eggplant curry is dedicated to you and your blog.
This Bengali platter is a bit different than my mum’s.
As I mentioned, she only made veg spreads during religious holidays. The consumption of garlic and onion was not very common during those days in our home. I, as a child, used to wait eagerly for those days (hardly 3 or 4 days a year) and try the vegetarian delicacies. When I was growing up I was not much of a fish lover. Back then I preferred vegetables over fish and chicken, though I loved lamb and goat meat. I do not observe the fasting holidays, but those days will always remain in a special corner of my heart.
Mum used to wake up in the early morning and get into the shower. After that she would clean the entire house (all three stories) and say her morning prayers. Meanwhile, dad would go to market and get the stuff needed for the festival–which are flowers, fruits, candies, sweets, yogurt and what not. After dad got back from the market, mom and our help would start cooking. Within 3 to 4 hours I was able to see 5 to 6 dishes on our kitchen counter top. Sometimes, once the cooking was done, she would go to the temple with the other women and do the rituals. Other times she would to go with friends and family in the community . I do not remember a single celebration when mom did not invite other women. After they got back, they would eat at our house. Dad and I were not allowed to sit with the other women and participate in their topics of conversation. So mom served us before she started her meal with others. Once the luncheon was done we used to have sweets and savory yogurt (a lot different than Chobani or any other common brand, but you can find it in a Bangladeshi store).
I prepared five dishes that I served with steamed rice.
Its pretty common in a Bengali household to serve dal in a spread. I made my dal with carrots and fresh peas. Its also customary to make some fries to go with it so I made potato fries with poppy seeds and spinach sauté with garlic. You can find the recipe for roasted yellow lentils with poppy-seed potatoes here. Rather than baking I used my air fryer this time.
Spinach sauté with garlic is very popular in our house. I am sure its the same in other Bengali households. My mom sautés the spinach with garlic and dried red chile. I have done it quite a few times, and my husband cherish it. Its so easy to prepare and perfect as a side dish.
The fourth dish I made is eggplant curry with mustard. There are a couple of eggplant curries my mom cooks. It is the simplest of them but I love this dish. My husband is an eggplant hater so he did not eat much of it. He is the reason I have so few eggplant recipes 🙂
My last recipe is okra masala. When I was a child I never liked Okra but I always loved the okra masala prepared by mom. I made it for the first time a couple of months ago and my husband loves it. I prepared it a couple of times since then. It is mildly spicy, a bit dry and perfect with rice or flat bread. To this day it is very famous in my mom’s household.
I hope you enjoyed this Bengali vegetarian platter. Stay tuned for the lightly sweetened Bengali Sandesh in my next post. The spread would be incomplete without it.
I had a Bengali friend during my school days and she would get vegetarian preparations in her lunchbox regularly and I used to love all of it. Your platter looks amazing and I’m sure it would have tasted too.
Beautiful veg treat!! lovely clicks!
Lovely platter! I love the eggplant recipe 🙂
Thank you
Thank you dear!
Thank you dear. Childhood memories never fade, does it?
That’s a feast you have put up Dol. What a scrumptious spread dear. Really commendable effort for putting up so many dishes
Thanks dear!
I am no vegeterian food fan myself, but any spread that looks just like the above, I would definitely wait for it! 🙂 Especially if somebody else would make it for me… Such delicious looking pictures, have captured it so perfectly… 🙂
Thanks a lot Rafeeda! It’s not easy for me to cook and eat vegetarian food as wlel:)
What a lovely and lively spread it is Doll? Wanna dive-in right now!
Beautiful light,gorgeous images! Cheers!
Awesome veggie platter, love to try your egg plant curry something different with the recipe sounds interesting
Thank you dear! It means a lot to me when it comes from you.
Thank you dear!
You took me back home 🙂 My mom doesn’t mind vegetarian menu. My dad however needs fish almost everyday LOL
Thank you so much Kankana! It means a lot to me when it comes from you. My mum and dad both are ardent fish lover. I, on the other hand is not much of a fish lover 🙂
Pingback: Gobhi Anaar Pulav with Spinach Garlic Raita – Diabetes Friendly Thursdays | simplyvegetarian777
This is my first visit to your blog, and God, I am bowled over ! This has to be the most visually appealing Bengali food blog ever. How do I know ? Because I regularly stalk Bengali food blogs for vegetarian recipes. This is the only blog where I found a vegetarian platter. I love Bengali vegetarian food and think that it deserves much more fan following.
Thank you so much dear. I am trying to bring out the bengali vegetarian cuisine to the world 🙂