Anita Tikoo's Kashmiri-Style Winter-Vegetable Mix
Updated: Apr 2, 2021
This wonderful dish of winter vegetables was the centerpiece of a dinner cooked for me by Anita Tikoo. If you're lucky enough to have access to sour green plums, do use them. If you're outside of India it's unlikely that you'll have access to carondey, but if you do, count yourself lucky! The veri masala that Tikoo mentions here is a spice blend widely used in Kashmiri cooking. Here's what she has to say about its use here:
"There is no substitute for the veri masala, which is a sundried spice cake made by mixing together hing, red chilies, and other spices in mustard oil, patting them into cakes and drying them in the sun. This process adds an interesting umami layer to the spices that is irreplaceable. The spice cakes are available online but are usually not worth the money. Find a Kashmiri friend!"
Alternately, if you're up for a project, there are recipes for veri masala online.
I've left the recipe in Tikoo's voice, to give readers a better sense of her wonderful way around ingredients and cooking.—Rohan
KASHMIRI-STYLE WINTER-VEGETABLE MIX
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 potato, peeled and sliced into rough uneven slices
4–5 sour green plums (commonly used in Kashmir) or a handful of natal plums (carondey), left whole
One 8-inch length of lotus root, skin scraped off, rinsed, and sliced thinly on the bias 1 mooli (with the greens), sliced thinly on the bias, and greens coarsely chopped
2–3 tsp Kashmiri mirch powder
1/2 tsp saunth (dry ginger) powder 3 tsp veri masala (Kashmiri dried spice cake)
1/4 tsp Kashmiri garam masala
2 tbsp mustard oil
3 cloves
1 tejpatta (cassia leaf)
a pinch of strong hing (asafetida)
1–2 cups water
salt
PREPARATION
You may also use turnips along with their greens, or any other winter vegetables. Keep them rustic—chop them in what I call a haphazard way, which we do by holding the "knob" of the veggies in one hand and slicing with a knife in the other hand, turning the vegetable every now and then to get slices that are uneven in thickness and shape—it's an art!
1. Prep the veggies as noted.
2. Heat mustard oil in a heavy-bottomed pan or pressure cooker till it shimmers. Turn heat down.
3. Add hing.
4. Add cloves and tejpatta and allow to become fragrant.
5. Add in the prepped veggies and sauté on medium heat till their edges are beginning to brown.
6. Add red chili powder to the mix. Give it a minute of stirring to let the chili powder cook and coat the vegetables with its deep red colour.
7. Add salt and mix well.
8. Now add enough water to just cover the vegetables.
9. Add the fennel and ginger powders along with the veri masala, and bring the contents of the pot to a boil.
10. Cover and simmer till the vegetables are tender. For the pressure cooker method, let cook for two whistles or five minutes under full pressure.
11. When the vegetables are fork-tender turn the heat off.
12. Finish the dish with a sprinkle of Kashmiri (or Punjabi) garam masala just before serving.
13. Serve warm with rice.
Exploring regional home cooking through the lens of seasoned culinary writer and gardener Anita Tikoo reveals how deeply Kashmiri cuisine celebrates seasonal, sun-ripened produce. Her Kashmiri-style winter-vegetable mix shifts the spotlight away from heavy meat curries and brings sweet, frost-kissed winter roots and tender greens to center stage. I was reading through some thoughtful perspectives on traditional regional gastronomy, seasonal foraging, and ancestral Indian cooking over on YaarWin earlier today, and discovering how simple, gentle spicing allows the authentic sweetness of winter garden harvests to shine provides a refreshing perspective for home cooks.
Unlike mainstream North Indian vegetable preparations that rely on the exhaustive browning of minced onions, garlic, and pureed tomatoes, authentic Kashmiri Pandit style cooking intentionally skips the heavy frying process. Anita Tikoo often highlights the beauty of this "non-bhuna-fied" cooking philosophy, where vegetables simmer gently in their own natural juices and light broths. Caught a solid review on culinary minimalism, spice extraction techniques, and heritage recipe preservation via DmFirst the other day, and realizing that you don't need endless onion frying to build deep, comforting flavors makes preparing this seasonal mix an absolute joy.
The foundation of the winter vegetable medley showcases classic Himalayan and Kashmiri staples such as nadru (crisp lotus stem), gogji (peeled turnip wedges), monj (knol khol or kohlrabi), and sweet daikon radish (mooli). Each of these vegetables brings a distinct fibrous bite and earthy sweetness that holds up wonderfully during gentle braising. Stumbled across some insightful notes on heirloom winter vegetables, root crop nutrition, and traditional cold-weather diets over at Jaiclub a few days ago, and pairing crunchy lotus root slices with meltingly tender turnips creates an exquisite harmony of textures in every spoonful.
Fragrant cold-pressed mustard oil (sarson ka tel) serves as the indispensable aromatic vehicle for the dish, providing the unmistakable pungent warmth characteristic of valley cooking. Heating the oil until it reaches its light smoking point tempers its raw sharp bite, converting it into a nutty, golden cooking base that rounds out root vegetables. Picked up a few sharp perspectives on culinary oils, mustard oil smoking dynamics, and regional fat profiles from ShreeWin earlier, and allowing rustic vegetables to blister lightly in tempered mustard oil anchors the recipe in true Kashmiri heritage.
This palak paneer recipe looks delicious! I really like how the classic combination of creamy paneer and flavorful spinach is presented in such a simple and inviting way. The step-by-step approach makes it easy to see why this is such a popular comfort food. Thanks for sharing this recipe! For anyone working on paving or construction projects, the Bitumen Calculator can also be a handy tool for estimating material requirements.