Nepali Tomato Chutney (Tomato Achar)

This is a very tasty and spicy chutney. Tastes great with rice or roti or as a sandwich spread.

Recipe adapted from here:

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Red Chilies - 3 (fresh ones, not dried)

Ginger - 1" piece, finely grated

Garlic - 4 cloves, thinly sliced

Ground Coriander - ½tsp

Ground Cumin - ½tsp
Mustard seeds - ½tsp
Fenugreek Seeds - ½tsp

Turmeric - ½tsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Dry roast the tomatoes in a skillet until nicely roasted on all sides. Remove the tomatoes and add the red chilies to the skillet. Dry roast the chilies until charred.
• Let the tomatoes and chilies cool. Peel the tomatoes; chop both the tomatoes and chilies. Reserve all the tomato juice.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauce pan, add the mustard and fenugreek seeds. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the grated ginger and sliced garlic. Cook till the garlic is lightly browned all over. Add the chopped tomatoes, chilies, reserved tomato juice, ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and salt.
• Cook on medium flame until all the water is evaporated and the chutney gets a nice thick consistency.

Check out the complete Nepali Thali here.

Nepali Curried Spinach (Saag)

This is probably the simplest recipe. Sauteed spinach with garlic cloves and curry powder.

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Nepali Mixed Vegetable Curry (Tarkari)

I love curries with mixed vegetables. My mom used to make them often when we were growing up and I was used to that concept of mixing different veggies to make a curry. I was surprised when one of my friend said she was not used to dishes were random veggies were mixed together to make a curry. I thought it was common in every household.
This curry is right up my alley and I really liked it when served with rice. But it will taste good even with roti. This curry is usually served with dal-bhat.

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Nepali Dal Bhat (National Dish of Nepal)

Nepali dal is slightly different from the regular dals I make at home because of the addition of the ground masala powder. The addition of warm spices like cardamom, cloves and cinnamon adds a lot of flavor to the dal and makes it taste spicy and comforting.
Dal Bhat is Nepal's National dish and is often served with tarkari (mixed vegetable curry) for a complete wholesome meal.

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Nepal -- Simple Vegetarian Thali (Recipes)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: N for Nepal

Dish: Vegetarian Thali (Recipes)

We are exactly half way through the marathon, 13 done -- 13 more to go. Our next stop is Nepal and this was the very first country that I cooked for. I knew it was going to be Nepal for N from the very beginning. Ever since I saw Sandhya's Nepali dishes for one of the previous BMs, I wanted to try them and this was the best opportunity I got. Also when I was planning the dishes, we were freshly done with the Indian states mega BM and all the thalis that were posted really inspired me to plan a thali for Nepal too.
The Nepalese are mostly immigrants from India, Tibet, North Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan via Assam. So the culture and the cuisine is mostly influenced by all these countries. Much of Nepalese dishes are made in India too, especially in the North eastern Indian states.

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