East Indian
Besara (Odia Vegetables in Mustard-Poppy Paste)
Besara (Odia Vegetables in Mustard-Poppy Paste) is East Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre and the cooked vegetable. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 1 potato, cubed
- 1/2 cup eggplant, cubed
- 1/2 cup pumpkin, cubed
- 2 tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- 2 green chilies
- 3 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 tsp panch phoron (five-spice blend)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Soak the mustard seeds and poppy seeds in warm water for 15 minutes, then grind with the green chilies into a smooth paste.
- Heat the mustard oil in a pan and temper with the panch phoron until fragrant.
- Add the potato and pumpkin and fry for 4 minutes, then add the eggplant, turmeric, and salt.
- Stir in the mustard-poppy paste and water, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender and the gravy lightly clings to them, about 15 minutes.
- Serve hot with rice, an everyday Odia way of cooking whatever vegetables are on hand.
Serve it with
A East Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Besara (Odia Vegetables in Mustard-Poppy Paste), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The protein alongside
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What it is eaten with
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand. Besara (Odia Vegetables in Mustard-Poppy Paste) carries none of them. That is a checked answer rather than an ingredient list nobody read.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Light
- Protein
- Low
- Food groups it covers
- Vegetables and Nuts and seeds
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Besara (Odia Vegetables in Mustard-Poppy Paste) takes about 35 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on potato, eggplant, and poppy seed.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from East India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.