It’s time to share a different kind of cooking style with you. We call it Bhaji, which means stir frying of veggies with spices and condiments. There’s no need to make gravy for this kind of Bhaji cooking, it is mostly dry and kind of a side dish to rice but it takes less time to make! You can of course eat it as a main item, with rice or ruti (flat bread) even as a filler for your tortilla wrap!

The ingredients are few: cauliflower, potato, pinch of salt, onion, turmeric, dried chili, any of your favorite vegetable oil and pinch of whole cumin.

For four servings, I took two big potatoes and half of a medium big cauliflower. Since this is a stir fry recipe and we are not going to use water, cutting all the veggies in small and equal size is important. As you can see in the pictures, I have cut the potatoes in 1cm cubes and cauliflowers in small florets. And yes, you can definitely use the stem of cauliflower, if you don’t want to waste that delicious part!

In Bangladesh we use whole spices like cumin, coriander, nigella or black cumin seeds to season this kind of Bhaji recipes, which creates the difference between curry and stir fry. By seasoning I mean, when the oil gets warm in a pot, putting whole spices or condiments there before putting any ingredients. This is a very common technique, as we call it doing Phoron, followed in Bangladesh and it ensures homogeneous flavor in whole dish.

Tips 1: Seasoning in warm oil enhances the flavor.

Well, you can do Phoron or seasoning your curry with whole spices too, but since curries usually are with lots of flavors, it won’t miss anything if you don’t season it. However, Bhaji recipes don’t have many spices or condiments as ingredients, therefore, seasoning is a must, if you want to make a justice to it!

So the first step to cook a Bhaji is to put seasoning in warm oil. Please also take note to warm the oil just enough, not to heat it til burning point. Put the seasoning, in this case whole cumin in oil and if you are brave, put dried chili in the oil too.When cumin starts bubbling, put sliced onions on the pan.

Saute onions until golden brown and then put your cubed potatoes and cauliflower stems. At this step add turmeric powder and salt too. You need to give everything a very good stir for at least 5 minutes in a medium heat. Stirring potatoes and turmeric together will create a very nice aroma and color.

After a while you will see that potatoes are changing colors, it starts to get reddish around the edges. Now, at this point, I turn the heat lower and cover the pan, so the potatoes can get cooked in its own water. Usually we don’t add waters in Bhaji dishes, however if you feel your veggies need to get cooked properly, you can add water, but just in a very little amount!

After 5 or 6 minutes, check the potatoes if they have gotten soft. Add cauliflower at this step and give it a very good stir to combine with all the flavors and spices. I like my cauliflower in shape(!), so I am extra careful not to break them when stirring.

When you see the cauliflowers are coated with all the ingredients, cover them again and keep them in low heat. Cauliflower has enough water to get cooked, so you do not need to add extra water at this step. Well, if you are unsure, you can add a bit of water, but not too much otherwise your cauliflowers will get too soft and it will make your your stir fried dish into soggy fried dish!

After 5 or 6 minutes, cauliflowers will start to get soft and translucent. Now stir them occasionally in a medium heat to give them more taste and color. When everything looks more homogeneous in color and softness, turn off the heat and take the pan out of stove. You can garnish your cauliflower potato bhaji with fresh coriander leaves if you like.

Recipe: 4 Servings Prepping time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: Vegetables Half of a medium big cauliflower 2 Big Potatoes (or any root vegetable like beet root or sweet potato) Spice and Condiments 20ml Vegetable Oil (Olive/Mustard/Coconut oil, anything will do) 1 medium Onion 1tbs fine Salt 1tsp Turmeric powder 1tsp whole Cumin seeds 2-3 dried Chili (optional)

Instruction 1. Slice onion, cut cauliflower, it’s green part and stems and potatoes into small, 1 cm cube size (you can keep potato skin on if you like). 2. Warm oil in a wok or a big pan, put whole cumin seeds and dried chili when oil is warm. When they starts to bubble, put sliced onion and fry them until golden brown. 3. Add potatoes, turmeric and salt now and stir them for 4-5minutes until potatoes changes color. Then cover the pan and keep them in low heat for 5 to 6 minutes until potatoes are soft. Add very little water if you want. 4. Now add cauliflowers and stir them well with potatoes. 5. Cover the pot and keep the heat low. Cook until the cauliflowers look translucent. Stir them occasionally. 6. Turn off heat and take out cauliflower potato Bhaji and garnish with coriander leaves as desire. and Enjoy with rice or flat bread or tortilla!