Shukto recipe – Shukto is a popular veg dish of our bengali culinary. Many vegetables are used for making Bengali shukto or sukto recipe but bitter gourd is most important among all ingredients. Basically, shukto is a little bitter and sweet taste bengali mixed vegetable curry served with white rice and ghee at the beginning of a traditional bengali lunch. Bengali shukto or sukto is incomplete without radhuni, though milk and ghee are also used to bring creaminess to this recipe. Sukto is served in Durga Puja, Bengali’s marriage feast, baby shower or rice ceremony but bengali biye barir shukto is hugely popular among all of these.
In shukto recipe, apart from bitter gourd (uchche or korola), drumsticks (sojna danta), raw bananas (kacha kola), raw papayas (kacha pepe), sweet potatoes, beans, brinjals, potatoes are used, even a few more vegetables can be added in this bengali dish, i.e, raddish or muloo, bottle gourd or lau, ridge gourd or jhinge, etc. Dal er bori (means Lentil dumplings in english and dal badi in hindi ) is one more important ingredient for making this traditional Bengali shukto or sukto recipe. These fried dal er bori enhance the taste twice of this recipe.
According to the elders, traditional Bengali lunch should start with any bitter taste dish, which means a dish prepared with bitter taste veggies like karela, such as shukto. Shukto is really healthy and full of vitamins as eight to nine varieties of vegetables are used in this recipe. And it’s soothing too, especially to beat the intense heat of summer. Radhuni or wild celery seed is a must used in this recipe as it keeps our stomach healthy during hot summer days.
Though by following my mom’s recipe, here I’ve used mustard and poppy seeds (paste) too. The addition of milk brings its creaminess, ghee and special bhaja masala creating a wonderful aroma in this shukto recipe. Many of us use wild celery seeds (called radhuni in bengali language) paste or powder form at the beginning of cooking this recipe, but I prefer to use it later, which tastes awesome. Moreover, I’ve used some simple tricks to make this recipe more flavourful and delicious like “bengali biye barir shukto”.
Though shukto is a popular Bengali dish for years but doesn’t have any clear idea about the origin of this recipe. Bengalis from West Bengal to Assam to Bangladesh have different traditional niramish recipes and shukto is one of them and common preparation to our bengali kitchen. So both Bangla (east and west) have this common dish with the same version, the only difference is, we call it shukto or sukto and it is popular as shuktoni among the Bangladeshi people in their Bengali dialect.
Stay with me till the end of this recipe to know each and every secret about this traditional niramish Bengali dish. Try this recipe at home and don’t forget to let me know your valuable feedback by writing it down in the comment section below.
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Check a few other niramish bengali recipes like
Potoler dalna – a niramish aloo potoler tarkari
Shukto recipe – bengali mixed vegetable curry with bitter gourd
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 45 mins
Served in: 1 hr
Served for: 8-10 people
Course: Lunch
Cuisine: Bengali
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients of shukto
1 cup(Measuring cup) = 250 ml
- 1/2 cup bitter gourd (uchche or korola or karela)
- 1 raw banana (kancha kola)
- 1 sweet potato (misti aloo)
- 1/2 of papaya (pepe)
- 2 drum sticks (sojne danta)
- 1 potato (aloo)
- 1/2 of brinjal (begun)
- 8-9 flat beans (seem)
- 20-22 dal er bori (lentil dumplings or dal badi)
- 1 cup milk
- 1+1/2 tsp sugar
- 2+1/2 tbsp ghee
- 5+1/2 tbsp mustard oil
- salt(as per taste)
Ingredients for shukto masala
- 1+1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp poppy seeds
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 1 green chili
- 2 1/2 tbsp grated coconut
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 3/4 tsp cumin powder
- 1+1/2 tsp radhuni or wild celery seeds
- 1+1/2 tsp paanch phoron or bengali five spice
For tempering whole spices
- 1/2 tsp paanch phoron
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 dry red chilli
How to make shukto recipe
Instructions
1. First, take all the vegetables (described in the ingredients above), wash them properly, then peel out sweet potato, raw banana, raw papaya, and potato, then cut all the veggies along with brinjal lengthwise ( approx 7-8 cm long) as shown in the pic below. Then cut the bitter gourd around 4-5 cm long.
2. While cutting both ends of flat beans, remove the thread-like fiber out of it and I didn’t cut it halves just kept it whole. Cut the drumsticks 5-6 cm long and strip off its rough outer skin.
3. Then take a pressure cooker with 1+1/2 cup of water, bring it to boil.
4. When the water will start to boil, add sweet potato, raw papaya, and drumsticks to it as shown in the pic. Then close the lid and wait for one whistle on a high flame.
5. When the pressure cooker gets a whistle, turn off the flame and take the cooker away from the stove.
6. Remove the clip of its lid and let the pressure cooker releases its pressure automatically.
7. Once the lid opens, take a strainer and strain the water from the vegetables. Keep the veggies separately to avoid overcooking.
8. Now take a pan, place it on medium heat, let it gets hot, and add mustard oil to it.
9. Once the oil gets hot, add 20-22 dal er bori to the pan and fry it to get a nice golden brown colour. Remove the bori from the pan and keep it aside.
10. Then add bitter gourd to the pan and fry till it gets a lite golden brown texture. Remove it from the pan and keep it for using later.
11. Add flat beans to the pan and saute it from both sides for 2 mins.
12. Now add the potato and raw banana one by one and fry them for 10 mins on low flame by covering the pan with a tight lid. It will help the veggies to get cooked while frying. Then remove the veggies from the pan.
13. Then add brinjal to the pan, fry till it gets nice golden brown colour. Take out the brinjal from the pan and keep it aside.
To make shukto Masala
- Take a bowl and add mustard and poppy seeds to it, add water to soak it for 10 mins.
2. After 10 mins, strain the well-soaked seeds and put it in a blender jar with ginger and green chill as shown in the pic.
3. Then add grated coconut and little water(about 1 tbsp) and blend all the ingredients together to make a smooth masala paste.
To make Bengali Shukto gravy
- Take the same pan, that was used for frying the vegetables, add paanch phoron (bengali five spice), dry red chilli and bay leaves to it for tempering in the oil, (quantity of the whole spices for tempering in oil described under the ingredients).
2. When the aroma starts coming from the bengali five spice (paanch phoron), add the masala paste (kept in blender) to the pan. And sauté it a little.
3. Then add cumin powder and turmeric powder to the pan and mix them well with existing masala and sauté together for a few more minutes.
4. Next, add salt and sugar to the pan and give a good stir.
5. When the oil will start separating from the masalas then add 1 cup of water to it and bring it to a boil.
6. Once the gravy starts to boil, add fried potato, raw banana, flat beans, and bhaja dal er bori to it, and stir it well. cover the pan and let it boil on a medium flame for 5 mins.
7. After 5 mins, add the pressure cooked veggies like raw papaya, sweet potatoes, and drumsticks to it. Mix it well.
8. Then add vegetable stock that comes from the pressure cooking. As shown in the pic.
9. Lastly, add fried brinjal and bitter gourd to the pan and mix it well.
10. Bring it to a boil, then add 1 cup of milk or dudh to the pan and mix it nicely. let it cook for some time as the gravy nicely gets into the veggies.
11. Now it’s time to dry roast 1+1/2 tsp radhuni and 1+1/2 tsp paanch phoron in a pan and grind it well to get its powder form. This is my secret masala for making shukto recipes.
12. When the gravy will reach to your required consistency, sprinkle this above dry roasted grounded masala on the top of the gravy. As shown in the pic.
13. And lastly, add 2+1/2 tbsp of ghee or clarified butter to the gravy and give a quick mix. Cook it for just a few seconds and turn off the heat. Cover the pan with a lid to spread the aroma of ghee and roasted powdered masala all over the gravy and veggies as well.
14. Finally, your “Bengali biye barir shukto” is ready, serve this dish with white rice and enjoy your meal with it.
Tips for this recipe
- It was my Bengali biye bari or restaurant style shukto recipe, for making an easy and healthy version of shukto, you can pressure cook all the veggies with fried bitter gourd and fried dal bori. Then simply cook the boiled veggies in masala gravy as I described above.
- You may even add the vegetables as per your choice, i.e, radish, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, long yard beans, etc.
- If you want more bitterness in this recipe, just sauté the bitter gourds in oil for 2-3 mins, don’t fry it too much.
- Soaking the mustard and poppy seeds, in the beginning, will save time.
Based on 3 Review(s)
How to make sukto?
Sorry, Ms. Ira Roy, Ma’am, I really can not understand what is your query about? Did you want to know “How to make sukto” or something else related to this recipe? Just because where you are making this comment, is itself my Shukto recipe(also called Sukto) where I’ve also described how to make it at home. Please specify your query, I’ll surely try to help you out.