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A Winter Tale Unfolds
During winters, when I was staying in my village, we didn’t visit the market much. As a result, we didn’t have many vegetables at home. We ended up eating a lot of taro root, or “kachalu ki sabji” as we call it. My brothers and I grew tired of it after a while.
The main reason we ate it so often was because we grew it in our fields and stored it for winter. With snowfall making it difficult to go to the market, we relied on foods that didn’t spoil easily, and taro was one of them.
Culinary Creativity at Its Finest
One night, my mom decided to make peas and taro curry, or matar kachalu ki sabji. She often created different recipes using whatever we had at home. I’ve decided to share this recipe with the Foodie Bee Hive community, so you can try it too and perhaps come up with your own variations.
This isn’t our traditional recipe, I believe others in the mountains make it too. However, as a child, I thought my mother was a genius for combining different ingredients to create something new for us.
Nutritional Gems
Taro roots are rich in dietary fiber, which aids in improving digestive function. They also contain numerous vitamins, including vitamin C, vitamin B6, and vitamin E, making them a healthy addition to our meals.
Garden peas are a great source of various nutrients, fibers, and antioxidants, and they also contain protein. Additionally, they help lower blood sugar levels.
Let’s Get Cooking!
Ingredients:
• Taro roots: 500 grams
• Peas: 300 grams
• Tomatoes: 3 medium-sized
• Refined oil: 2 tablespoons
• Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon
• Fenugreek powder: 1/2 teaspoon
• Coriander powder: 1.5 teaspoons
• Salt: 1 tablespoon
• Red chili powder: 1/2 teaspoon
• Water: 2 glasses
Method :
To start, wash the taro roots thoroughly. Using a knife, peel the taro roots—this might require some effort, but remember the health benefits. Once peeled, cut the taro roots into small pieces.
In our recipe, we’ve used frozen peas, but you can also use fresh garden peas. If using frozen peas, soak them in water for half an hour before cooking.
We will take a pressure cooker and add refined oil in it.
After heating the oil, we will add cumin seeds in it.
Then we will add turmeric powder, coriander powder, and Fenugreek powder in it.
Then, we will add chopped tomatoes, salt, and red chili powder in the pressure cooker and stir it.
When the oil starts coming from this, we will add chopped taro roots or kachalu in it and give it a stir and let it sit for 1 minute.
Then, we will take out the peas from the water and add in the pressure cooker.
Then, we will add 2 glasses of water in it and close the lid of the pressure cooker.
We will cook taro peas curry or matar kachalu sabzi in the pressure cooker on medium-high flame for 10 whistles.
Enjoy your meal!
And our taro peas curry or matar kachalu sabzi is ready. You can eat this with rice and chapati or Indian flatbread as we are eating with chapati and some pickle of broccoli which is also homemade.
These photos were captured by me by my phone, Realme GT, and edited using the default phone editor.
Thank you for reaching the end of this blog. I hope you’ve gained some insights or will consider trying out this recipe.
Wishing all gastronomes lots of love 🫶🥑and sending a big warm hug to each one of you.🍓