Tarkari
Also: Tarkari, Nepali vegetable curry, Sabji
A Nepali everyday vegetable curry of seasonal vegetables cooked with cumin, turmeric and other spices, typically in mustard oil, eaten as part of the daily dal-bhat meal.
Identity criteria
- 1Built around seasonal vegetables, whatever is fresh
- 2Tempered and spiced with cumin and turmeric as a base
- 3Commonly cooked in mustard oil for its characteristic pungency
- 4A semi-dry to lightly saucy curry, a component of dal-bhat-tarkari
- 5An everyday home dish, varying constantly with season and pantry
Components
Seasonal vegetables (potato, cauliflower, beans, greens, etc.)essentialThe substance of the dish, varies by season
Onion, garlic, ginger, green chilioptionalCommon aromatic base
Mustard oilessentialGives the typical Nepali pungent character
Cumin and turmericessentialThe defining base spices
Coriander, fenugreek, timur (Sichuan pepper)optionalRegional spice additions
Fresh corianderoptionalFinishing herb
Technique
- Tempering (jhaneko)
- Blooming whole spices in hot mustard oil releases aroma and forms the flavour base
- Cooking to semi-dry
- Vegetables are cooked until tender but the dish stays relatively dry to sit alongside dal and rice
Form & serving
- Served
- On a thali plate beside rice and lentils
- Temperature
- hot
- Portion
- a side serving as part of the meal
- Pairs with
- bhat (rice) · dal (lentils) · achaar (pickle) · roti
Character
Flavour
Texture
tender vegetables, semi-dry to lightly saucy
Eaten
The everyday vegetable dish of the Nepali table, eaten daily as part of dal-bhat-tarkari with rice, lentils and pickle.
When
year-round · varies with seasonal produce
Variations & related
Regional variations
- Aloo tarkari · Nepal
Potato version, very common
- Saag / leafy tarkari · Nepal
Made with seasonal greens
- Mixed vegetable tarkari · Nepal
Whatever vegetables are on hand
Related dishes
- pairs-with Dal bhat
Tarkari is the vegetable component of the staple dal-bhat-tarkari meal
- sibling Sabzi
The broader Indian dry vegetable curry
Substitutions
Mustard oil → Other vegetable oiladmissible
Works but loses the distinctive Nepali pungency
One vegetable → Another seasonal vegetableadmissible
Interchangeability is the point of the dish
Vegetables → Meat only with no vegetableinadmissible
Then it is a meat curry, not tarkari
Cumin and turmeric → No spicesinadmissible
Plain boiled vegetables are not tarkari
Common mistakes
- Overcooking vegetables to mush
- Skipping the spice tempering so it tastes flat
- Making it too saucy, blurring it into a gravy curry
- Burning the turmeric, which turns it bitter
Provenance
An everyday vegetable curry of Nepal, shared across the wider South Asian region where the term tarkari broadly means a cooked vegetable side.
Shared by: Nepal, India, Bangladesh
References
- 1.Nepali home cooking
- 2.South Asian everyday cuisine
Confidence: high