This thali of colourful vegetables, accompanied by rotis/ phulkas or plain rice or a sour dough loaf, should be good for about six persons. These vegetables combine in a delicious, nutritious mix such that you get to savour the beans, the baigan/ bhanta/ aubergine and the aloo/ potatoes separately as well as the goodness of the whole bound together. Its earthy and robust, flavourful and balanced. A true comfort food you would relish and remember. It does not require a lot of masala/ spices.

Recipe: heat mustard oil or another vegetable oil in a kadahi/ deep pan, add methi/ fenugreek seeds, a spot of turmeric powder, freshly ground roasted cumin seeds/ cumin seeds powder, some chilli flakes, then the chopped onions (thinly cut slices) and once they turn translucent all the other vegetables – Hyacinth/ Lablab beans preferably the white ones, see photo below) broken in two, cubes of aubergine, peas, and a little later a chopped tomato, add salt to taste, mix, add a glass and half of water, cover and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.

I wish you could taste it at home. The process of course starts with going to the nearby subzi mandi to get fresh vegetables:)

Sunderpur Subzi Mandi, Varanasi – a daily delight, February 2026

Trying to preserve these recipes whose master chef (Sheela Tripathi, Maji for the local people) is now too old to cook. Forgot to take a photo of the finished dish. Will upload the photo here, when I visit Varanasi next.

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Cousins green – it has a sort of a cousin frequently prepared at home though the taste and flavour are quite different. Unlike aloo-baigan-matar-tamatar-sem, there is no gravy. Photos:

In Banaras, palak saag/ spinach is almost always sold with soya saag/ dill, as you can see in the picture above. Finely chopped dill and spinach combine well with brinjal and potatoes.

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