Bengali labra recipe with step-by-step pictures and video. Labra is a delicious, onion and garlic-free dry mixed vegetable curry prepared at the Bengali house mainly for puja purposes. At my home, I mainly prepare this sabji for Kojagori Lokkhi(Laxmi) Pujo and serve it with bhoger khichuri. Cooked in less oil and with a few spices (Bengali five spices important among them), used to get the exact taste that belongs to the exotic kitchen of Bengal.
Labra is a slightly sweet, creamy and mushy Bengali style mixed veg curry prepared for Bengali puja occasion. An old yet healthy dish, prepared by Bengali grandmothers to prevent health issues from seasonal changes. As this is a pure veg curry (like jain or sattvic cuisine), which means onion and garlic have never been used in it. That is why Bengali people specially prepare it for puja. Mainly serves in Durga puja and Lokkhi pujor khichuri bhog.
Sweet pumpkin, sweet potatoes, brinjals, and coconut are must-used vegetables in this dish. However, people from different regions use different varieties of sabji as per their tradition. Like, some people use spinach in it, and some say spinach should not be used in traditional labra tarkari. Some people also use raw bananas and banana stems. However, I make it with the vegetables that suit me best. For me only taste matters. Whatever vegetables can be used but that authentic taste must be intact.
As I belong to a ghoti family by birth, so since my childhood I’ve been seeing chchanchra as a common preparation in the lunch menu of Bengali Ghoti Bari’r marriage. And chorchori is one more preparation comes from ghoti barir rannaghar. Whereas “labra” came from Bengali Bangal Bari’r menu, basically an exotic paanchmishali torkari. Though Ghoti and Bangal both have their version of making ghonto.
But don’t ask me why these recipes are named labra, chchanchra, chorchori, ghonto etc. I can explain in my way but that may not be correct. So better to leave that discussion and focus on today’s Bengali puja special labra recipe.
My mom never cooked labra at home, so I never tasted this curry before. I fell in love with labda, when I first had this torkari in Masimoni’s house(in my childhood). That was the speciality of their lokkhi pujo’r bhoger khichuri prasad. After that, every year my sister and I never missed going Masimoni’s house at lokkhi puja time to relish their puja special khichuri labra combo.
As my husband and I both love labra, so after getting married, I started making it on my own. However, at the beginning, I was not satisfied with its taste as I felt something was missing and could not get the similar taste which I had in Masimoni’s house. Later after trying a lot and adding several ingredients, finally I got success and almost reached that unforgettable taste. So decided to share it on my website.
Here I have used ground dry roasted spices and a few little tricks which make it scrumptious. To know all the secrets about it, stay with me till the end.
Try this recipe at home, and please let me know how it worked and feel free if you have any questions about the recipe; just leave me a comment in the comment section below.
You may try this dish with my bhoger khichuri recipe too.
Prep time: 40 mins
Cooking time: 55 mins
Total time: 1 hrs 35 mins
Servings: 7-8 people
Course: Main course
Cuisine: Bengali Vegetarian recipe
Author: Moumita Paul
Dry roast the spices then ground them to make a powder form of it.
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Your blog is interesting especially for the very elaborately described recipes. However do take care of spellings, some of which seem to be autocorrect errors.
In labra recipe, panch phoron appears as "panache photon", tempering as "tampering"...
Thank you so much, Mr/Mrs. D Banerjee for observing my blog post in detail and make me notice such errors.....I'm really grateful to you.....I'll be more careful next time.
Is there something missing.. Becoz I knew milk is necessary in labra chorchori...
Milk is also added in labra recipe?... I did not know that...Thank you so much, Ms. Mala Ghosal, for such valuable information...I will surely try it