Shukto recipe | Traditional Bengali Cuisine

Overview of Shukto Recipe

Shukto is a bitter and pungent stew of vegetables cooked in mustard oil and spiced with paanch phoron, ginger paste and chillies. It is a starter and usually served with rice. Here is your Shukto recipe.

Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Cooking Time : 30-40 minutes
Taste : Sweet-Bitter
Additional note : Shukto is one of the favorite dishes of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Ingredients :

• 2 medium sized potatoes
• 1 medium sized Radish
• 1 bitter gourd
• 1 raw banana
• 1/2 (small) raw Papaya
• 100 gms of green beans
• 100 gms of drumstick
• 1 medium sized brinjal
• 10-12 dried lentil dumplings
• mustard oil (as per requirement)
• Milk – 1 cup
• Panch-phoron (Indian 5 spice blend) – 2 teaspons
• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• dried red chilli – 1
• Radhuni seeds / celery bay leaf – 2
• 1 small sweet potato
• ghee- 1 teaspoon
• salt and turmeric – as per requirement

Preparing Shukto :

• Heat the mustard oil in a frying pan. Thereafter add all the vegetables (potato, radish, raw banana, raw papaya, green beans, drumstick, brinjal, sweet potato) into it. Fry for 4-5 minutes
• Add salt and Turmeric to the preparation. Add half a cup of water to the frying pan. Cover the pan and let it boil for approximately 10 minutes.
• In a separate frying pan, add mustard oil and heat it. Add dried red chili, celery bay leaf, cumin seeds and the five Indian spices blend (panch phoron) to it. Add bitter gourd to the oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes.
• Paste cumin seeds, mustard seeds and ginger together. Add this paste to the second frying pan and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the boiled vegetables from the first frying pan into the second frying pan and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add the previously fried lentil dumplings to the preparation at this stage.
• Add 1 cup of milk to the preparation and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
• Add ghee to the preparation and switch off the flame.
• Take mustard seeds and panch-phoron (five Indian spices blend) mixture. Grind and roast them. Sprinkle them on the Shukta preparation
• Your Shukta is ready for serving.