nepali vegetarian dishes

Pickled Potatoes (Aloo Acchar)

If you love hot, spicy and sour stuff like most Nepali people do, you'll love this recipe. However, people not used to eating spicy food can still enjoy it by using a lesser amount of chilies.

Ingredients

• 10-12 medium-sized potatoes
• 1/4 cup black sesame seeds (til)
• 2-3 green chillies (more or less according to taste)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 3-4 tbsp lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp mustard oil
• coriander leaves
• 1 tsp chili powder
• salt according to taste

Directions

Boil and peel potatoes. Cut them into approx 1 inch cubes. Place the til in a pan and roast the till they look well roasted and crisp. Remove the pan fron heat and let the til cool. Then grind the til into a fine powder(as you might notice til contains oil). Add the til powder, chili powder, salt, turmeric, lemon juice and mustard oil to the potatoes and mix well. Also add the green chilies cutting them into long strips. If the sauce looks too thick, you can add some water and if the sauce is not thick enough, you can add some mashed potatoes. Garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy.

Beans and Bamboo Shoots

Ingredients

• 1 cup bamboo shoots
• 2 cups potatoes, peeled, and cut into ½-in. cubes
• 1 cup black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• 1 cup onions, finely chopped
• 3 dried red chilies
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger, minced
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons mustard oil
• Salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions

In a sauce pan heat oil, fry dried red chilies until dark. Add onions and sautee until light brown. Add cumin, coriander, chili powder, ginger, garlic, salt, and pepper. Fry for 1 min under low heat. Add potatoes to the onion mixture and sautee for 5 min in medium heat. Sprinkle water if it starts to burn. Add soaked beans, bamboo shoots, tomatoes, yogurt, and broth to the potatoes mixture; stir well. Bring to a boil, and let simmer for 15-20 min. under low heat until potatoes are fork-tender, and the gravy has attained its desired consistency. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with rice, or roti.
Submitted by: Tulsi Regmi

Vegetable Curry From Nepal

Ingredients

In A Dutch Oven, Saute
• 3 Onions, sliced thin
• 3 Cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ts Ground coriander
• 1 ts Ground turmeric
• 1/2 ts Ground cumin
• 1/4 ts Dry mustard
• 1/8 ts (+-) cayenne
  Add To It
• 6 c Potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed And diced
• 1 ds Peanut oil for flavor
  When Almost Tender, Add
• 4 1/2 c Broccoli, cauliflower or Cabbage, chopped
• 1 Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tomatoes
• 1 ts Curry powder

Directions

Cover and simmer until all veggies are tender. Serve over rice.

Posted by EBWATERS to AOL. [Rev. SKS. Original called for sauteing in peanut oil and adding greater quantity of peanut oil at end]
From the recipe files of Sue Smith, SueSmith9@aol.com.

Nepali Vegetable MOMOs

(Nepali Vegetable Stuffed Dumplings)

Ingredients

Dough for wrappers:
• 3 cup All-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 cup water
• Pinch of salt
• 3 cups assorted vegetables (spinach, cauliflower, carrot, green peas, daikon, red pepper, green pepper), finely chopped
• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup green onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon timur
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 fresh red chilies, minced
• 1 cup Nepali cheese (paneer), roughly crushed
• 2 tablespoon clarified butter
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1 tablespoon water-flour mixture (thickening agent)
• Salt to taste

Filling:

Directions

Dough
In a large bowl combine flour, oil, salt and water. Mix well, knead until the dough becomes homogeneous in texture, about 8-10 min. Cover and let stand for at least 30 min. Knead well again before staging the wrappers.
Filling:
In a non-stick pan heat clarified butter, splitter fenugreek until it turns dark. Add chopped onions and saute until just slightly light brown. Add turmeric, garlic, ginger, and chilies. Fry for 30 sec. Put vegetables and stir-fry until slightly soft. Do NOT over stir-fry the vegetables. Salt and pepper the vegetable mixture. Add cheese, green onions and cilantro, mix well. To solidify the vegetable mixture, add one tablespoon of flour-water mixture. Mix the mass over until thickened. Transfer the vegetable filling into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow cooling.
Assembly:
Give the dough a final knead. Prepare 1-in. dough balls. Take a ball, roll between your palms to spherical shape. Dust working board with dry flour. On the board gently flatten the ball with your palm to about 2-in circle. Make a few semi-flattened circles, cover with a bowl. Use a rolling pin to roll out each flattened circle into a wrapper. For well excecuted MOMOs, it is essential that the middle portion of the wrapper be slightly thicker than the edges to ensure the structural integrity of dumplings during packing and steaming. Hold the edges of the semi-flattened dough with one hand and with the other hand begin rolling the edges of the dough out, swirling a bit at a time. Continue until the wrapper attains 3-in diameter circular shape. Repeat with the remaining few semi-flattened dough. Cover with bowl to prevent from drying.

For packing hold wrapper on one palm, put one tablespoon of the filling mixture and with the other hand bring all edges together to the center, making the pleats. Pinch and twist the pleats to ensure the absolute closure of the stuffed dumpling. This holds the key to good tasting, juicy dumplings.
Heat up a steamer, oil the steamer rack well. This is critical because it will prevent dumplings from sticking. Arrange uncooked MOMOs in the steamer. Close the lid, and allow steaming until the dumplings are cooked through, about 8-10 min. Take the dumplings off the steamer, and immediately serve. To serve, arrange the cooked MOMOs on a plate dressed with an ample amount of hot tomato achar.

Vegetable Thukpa

(Himalayan Vegetable-Noodle Stew)

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Tibetan noodles, similar to spaghetti, cavatelli
• 3 cups assorted vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, green beans, mustard greens, potatoes)
• ½ lb. Spinach, washed and cut into pieces
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• ½ teaspoon jwanu (lovage seeds)
• 3 fresh chilies, julienned
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup tomatoes
• ½ cup yogurt
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons mustard oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions

Cook noodles in boiling salted water until slightly undercooked. Drain and rinse. In a sauce pan heat two tablespoons of mustard oil. Add onions, fry till light brown. Add turmeric, garlic, ginger, cumin powder, and chilies. Stir well for a minute or so. Put the assorted vegetables and stir-fry well, about five min. To the vegetable mixture add tomatoes, soy sauce, yogurt, broth, jwanu, bay leaf, salt and pepper and cook until vegetables are tender. Add the noodles and stew for five more minutes or until nice consistency of the sauce is attained.
And lastly, add spinach and fold into the stewed noodles for a minute or so until wilted. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with roti.
source:http://www.asiarecipe.com/nepveg.html