Bandhakopir ghonto recipe (Bengali Niramish Bandhakopir tarkari recipe) step by step

Bandhakopir ghonto recipe (Bengali Niramish Bandhakopir tarkari recipe) step by step. Bandhakopir ghonto means basically a dry and mushy niramish Bandhakopir tarkari in Bengali, no onion garlic Bengali cabbage curry recipe. This Bengali style cabbage curry is made with shredded cabbage (bandhakopi), ginger, green chilli,hing, ghee & garam masala. Potato and green peas are additional ingredients in this Bengali cabbage recipe. Due to niramish dish, no onion or garlic is used in cooking this cabbage curry. In West Bengal even in Bangladesh, this no-onion garlic cabbage curry is also known as niramish bandhakopir tarkari. This Bengali dish is similar North Indian style Patta gobhi ki sabji or Bandh gobhi ki sabji recipe if cooked without onion and garlic.

Cooking of niramish Bandhakopir ghonto aka bandhakopir tarkari starts with cumin, and bay leaves tempered in oil. Then continue cooking with frying aloo and frying shredded bandhakopi. Tomato, ginger, and green chillies paste with jeera powder, hing, salt, sugar and turmeric used in cooking with the veggies until separates oil. Adding green peas pods. Lastly, ghee and garam masala use to enhance the taste and flavour of this cabbage curry. Due to its mushy nature, this cabbage curry is known as ghonto (ghonto means dry mushy curry in Bengali).

This Bengali dish is prepared with finely chopped cabbage, chunk of potatoes and green peas pods (though optional). How finely chop the cabbage, cabbage will quickly get soft and the curry will quickly get cooked & get mushy as well. Even novices or beginners can use a vegetable chopper to chop the cabbage finely and fastest way. 

For cooking this Bengali cabbage curry, I always add green peas. Green peas enhance the taste of this dish and healthy as well. In winter, I use fresh green peas and in other seasons use frozen green peas for making this recipe.

The cooking style of this Bandhakopir torkari is similar to Bengali Phulkopir dalna recipe. Only instead of phulkopi, badhakopi needs to fry with aloo for making this Bengali vegetarian curry. The only difference is, phulkopir dalna contains gravy however bandhakopir torkari gets a dry mushy texture. Otherwise, taste wise this Bengali recipe would have been named bandhakopir dalna.

Winter is the best time to cook this Bengali cabbage curry at home. In winter, newly harvested cabbage is soft & juicy and has no smell. Even cabbage quickly gets soft and mushy while cooking this curry. Though I fry the cabbage in oil until soft to remove its smell if any and which makes this curry tasty. 

For the rest of the year, for cooking this Bengali cabbage curry, cabbage should blanch with salt in low heat by covering the pan. Through this procedure, the cabbage removes its water and gets soft. No water should be added while blanching. Later by removing the water, we can get rid of the bad odour of cabbage. So to get a wintertime taste of this cabbage curry, blanching is a must except in winter.

This Bandhakoipr tarkari is generally served with gorom bhat and dal at lunch or roti at dinner. However, this tarkari goes well with luchi and porota (paratha) at breakfast.

Try this bandhakopir torkari at home. Let me know your valuable feedback about how this bengali dish worked at your home in the comment section below.

Check some bengali bread recipes for having with this Bengali cabbage curry,

Luchi recipe

Koraishutir Kochuri recipe

Niramish khichuri or bhoger khichuri recipe is also accompanied well with this bandhakopir torkari.

For other popular ghonto recipes check below

Mochar ghonto recipe

Palong shaker ghonto

Muri ghonto recipe

How to make Bandhakopir ghonto (niramish bandhakopir tarkari) recipe with step by step pics

Preparation

• Thoroughly clean, wash & finely chop the cabbage, and dice the potatoes and green peas pods.

• Make a smooth paste of ginger, green chilli & tomato. Keep it aside.

To Make Bandhakopir ghonto or Bandhakopir tarkari

• Heat a pan (on medium heat), add the oil, and let the fumes come out of the oil. Add the potatoes to the oil and fry until golden from all sides.

• Then add cumin seeds & bay leaves in the same pan. Stir them well and let the aroma of spices come out from the frying.

• Next, add the cabbage to the same pan, and mix it well with the fried potatoes. Cover the pan and slow down the heat.

• After every 45 secs interval, stir the cabbage and fried aloo. Then again cover the pan until the cabbage and potatoes get soft.

• Then add the masala paste (prepared earlier) to one side of the pan. Also add cumin powder, hing, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, and sugar.

• Add the green peas. Mix all well together. Cover the pan.

• Cook it until masalas the raw smell goes off and the masala nicely blends with the cabbage and potatoes. Can add 1/4 cup of hot water if needed.

• Get an almost dry gravy. To make it mushier, mash a few potatoes and mix them with the curry.

• Lastly, add ghee and garam masala powder, mix it well, turn off the heat and cover the pan to infuse the aroma of ghee & garam masala into the curry.

• Bandhakopir ghonto or ghee gorom moshla diye bandhakopir niramish tarkari is ready. Serve this dish with rice & dal or niramish khichuri or bhoger khichuri at lunch. And with roti, luchi & porota (paratha) at breakfast or dinner.