Saag, Seasonal Vegetables and the Flavours of a Bihari Kitchen

A Bihari kitchen is ruled by the calendar. What goes into the pot depends on what is growing in the fields and sold in the morning market: sponge gourd and pointed gourd in the monsoon, green peas and mustard greens in winter, raw mango in summer, and an ever-changing bundle of leafy saag. The cooking is simple, often a quick stir-fry in mustard oil with a pinch of spices, but the variety across the year is remarkable. This is the side of Bihari food that visitors rarely see.

Cooking with the seasons

Wikipedia’s survey of Bihari cuisine notes that Bihari food is highly seasonal: watery foods such as watermelon and wood-apple sharbat are eaten in summer, while dry foods made with sesame and poppy seeds are eaten more in winter. It describes most vegetable dishes as steamed with a chaunk of spices, with turmeric added to almost everything and garam masala used less often. Many dishes are made by light frying, or bhoonjna, in mustard oil.

The saags of Bihar

Saag, leafy greens, are central to the Bihari kitchen. Wikipedia’s account of Bhojpuri cuisine lists greens from chana (chickpea), bathua (lamb’s quarters), methi (fenugreek), palak (spinach), sarson (mustard), matar (pea), karmi and noni. It notes that chane ka saag is the most commonly prepared, often mixed with bathua to enhance the flavour; that chavrai saag mixed with palak is seasoned with panch phoron and often prepared for weddings; and that karmi saag is cooked on the festival of Rishi Panchami. Tubers and chhena are sometimes added.

Greens also have ritual roles. When mothers break the Jitiya fast, according to Wikipedia’s account of the festival, dishes such as noni saag (purslane) and marua roti are prepared. Read more in our story on Jitiya.

Mithila’s greens and roots

Wikipedia’s account of Maithil cuisine describes saagak jhor, leafy vegetables in a very thin gravy, and thadia saagak teeman, a simple dish of red spinach and lentils eaten with chapati or rice, made by a process of manual churning called ghontod. Mithila grows many root vegetables, including potato, yam and khamarua, which are used in sanna (mashed vegetables), bhajia (vegetables fried in mustard oil with turmeric and chilli) and tarua (marinated or batter-coated fried vegetables). Arikanchanak tarkari is a preparation of marinated, sun-dried colocasia leaves, steamed and cooked in mustard gravy, and daail-jhimni combines fried ridge gourd with lentils.

The gourds and the everyday vegetables

Gourds are the backbone of Bihari summer and monsoon cooking. Wikipedia’s survey of Bihari cuisine describes nenua (sponge gourd) steamed with a chaunk of fenugreek seeds and chilli, often with chana dal; lauki (bottle gourd) steamed with cumin and chilli or panch phoron, also with chana dal; arbi (colocasia) in a mustard masala; and alu-baigan, potato and brinjal steamed with panch phoron and other seasonal vegetables. Wikipedia’s account of Bhojpuri cuisine adds nenua chana, a light meal of sponge gourd with chickpeas, and dry bhujias of parwal (pointed gourd), okra, bitter gourd, kundru (ivy gourd) and kantola or chathail (spiny gourd).

Special vegetable dishes

• Panchphodan kohda: pumpkin cooked with panch phoron, specially prepared for Chhath.
• Baigan adauri: brinjal cooked in mustard oil with potatoes, peas, greens and adauri, sun-dried urad dal dumplings.
• Girvanchh or rikvanchh: arbi leaves coated in spiced gram-flour batter, folded and fried, eaten in the monsoon month of Shravan.
• Bhariya or kalauji: vegetables such as bitter gourd, brinjal, parwal, okra or capsicum stuffed with spices.
• Chokha: charred and mashed brinjal, potato or tomato. See bhaat, dal and chokha.

A year in the Bihari vegetable basket

Summer: raw mango, gourds, cucumbers and cooling dishes, with sattu drinks and curd. Monsoon: sponge gourd, ridge gourd, pointed gourd, colocasia leaves and wild greens. Autumn: pumpkin, yam and the vegetables of the festival season. Winter: the richest season, with fresh peas, green chickpeas, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrots, tomatoes and greens such as bathua, mustard, chana and methi, when nimona, a spicy curry of minced peas, becomes popular.

Why it matters

Bihar’s vegetable cooking shows a deep knowledge of local plants, including greens that many urban Indians no longer recognise. It is cheap, nutritious and low in fat, and it uses almost everything: leaves, stems, roots and flowers. Many of these dishes are now being rediscovered by people interested in seasonal and local eating.

How it is changing

Year-round availability of vegetables in markets, and the move to cities, means that fewer families cook strictly by season, and some wild and local greens are disappearing from the table. At the same time, Bihari home cooks and food writers have begun documenting these dishes online, and some restaurants have added seasonal Bihari vegetables to their menus.

Conclusion

The flavours of a Bihari kitchen are the flavours of its fields: greens tempered in mustard oil, gourds steamed with panch phoron and roots mashed with chilli and garlic. Eat with the seasons in Bihar, and you will taste a cuisine far more varied than its famous dishes suggest. For more, read about Bihar’s forgotten recipes and Bihari achar.