![Bangladeshi or Bengali Bandhakopir Tarkari is your perfect vegetable curry.](http://veganevergreens.world/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bangladeshi-Bandhakopir-Tarkari-1.jpg")
Bangladesh and its cuisine
All over the world, Indian restaurants are ubiquitous. Lesser known cuisines are the Sri Lankan, Nepali and thus the Bangladeshi. We already wrote about Sri Lankan Polos and Bandakka and today we present this beautiful cabbage curry from Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi cuisine has a lot of similarities with any cuisine from the Bay of Bengal. And that means turmeric! Very healthy, very yellow and very delicious!
Bandhakopir Tarkari: a cabbage curry
Tarkari is a Bengali word that refers to (spicy) vegetable curries. Curry is in fact the South Indian equivalent that became English, but that’s something for another day and another recipe. Tarkari is Bengali so today is all about tarkari!
Bandhakopir is the Bengali word for cabbage, one of the ingredients for this tarkari.
So the name omits quite some ingredients, but with such a sophisticated cuisine, it’s undoable to name them all!
Ingredients
For 3-4 servings
- 2 potatoes
- 1 bowl of cabbage (around 400 grams – 14 Oz)
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 1 bowl of peas (1/2 cup) (frozen or fresh)
- 1 green chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder (or a bit of fresh ginger)
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- 2 bay leafs
- salt to taste
- sunflower or peanut oil (olive oil doesn’t get hot enough)
Kitchen utensils
- A wok or a big sauce pan
How to make Bandhakopir Tarkari
Prep: 5 min. | Cook: 20 min. | Total: 25 min.
- Peel 2 potatoes and cut them in cubes of half a centimeter
- In a wok or big saucepan, heat ample oil and add 1 teaspoon of turmeric. Heat up until fragrant.
- When the turmeric becomes fragrant, add the potato cubes and stir well such that the turmeric gets onto the potatoes. Add some salt too.
- Meanwhile, cut the onion in slices and cut up the green chili.
- When the potatos are done (when they are soft and are bite-ready), remove them from the oil and let them leak out. Keep the oil in the pan.
- With the oil still being in the pan, add 1 teaspoon of ginger, 1 teaspoon of cumin and heat until fragrant.
- When fragrant, add the onion, chili and 2 bay leafs. Stir well.
- In the meantime, chop the tomatoes and the cabbage.
- After some three minutes, when the onion is translucent, add the tomatoes and the cabbage. Stir well.
- After a few minutes more, also add the peas such that they become heated as well.
- Just before serving, also add the potato cubes and mix well.
Serve your Bandhakopir Tarkari with rice or chapatis.
Summary
Recipe: Bandhakopir Tarkari (Bangladeshi Cabbage Curry)
Country: Bangladesh
Prep: 5 min.
Cook: 20 min.
Total: 25 min.
Ingredients: cabbage, potato, tomato, onion, green chili, pea, turmeric, ginger, cumin, bay leaf
Type of meal: main dish
