A Vegetarian Assamese Meal: Must Taste on your next holiday to Assam

One of the perks of living and traveling in India are the abundant opportunities available to dip into lip smacking vegetarian meals and dishes all across the country. Such are the number of options that not only do we vegetarians get all our protein and calorie requirements, but we end up gliding way up the food ladder to heaven and a good many times end up gaining some weight too. This perk holds good for the north eastern states too, especially the state of Assam, which in spite of being a heavy fish eating state, serves some fantastic vegetarian Assamese cuisine.



I have always had a soft corner for Assamese food as the local food has almost always delighted my senses. A typical Assamese vegetarian thali or meal would include:

1) Local white or red rice (depending on season and region)

2) Bhoot Jhukoliya (Ghost Chillis – the hottest chilli in the world) - handle with extreme care

3) Aloo and Baingan Pitika (Steamed and salted Potato and Eggplant)

4) Dhekiya or Lye saag depending on season

5) Aloo, Aloo Potol, Cabbage, Beetroot or any other vegetable in season Bhaaji (Assorted Vegetables)



6) Yellow or Black Masoor Dal (Thick Lentil Soup)

7) Khoreo (Highly pungent and delicious ground mustard served with onion, garlic and other spices)

8) Pudina, Coconut, Sesame Chutney (Mint, Coconut or Sesame paste prepared with herbs and spices)

9) Salad made out of young bamboo shoots (If you eat with local tribes, these bamboo shoots will be usually the wild one that grows in the nearby forest)

10) Paste made from raw mangoes or ground jackfruit seeds



11) And finally some rice beer for the alcohol lovers and some rice kheer (sweet dish made from rice and condensed milk) for the dessert lovers

Depending on the season, there could be other dishes on your plate. And if there is a local festival like Bihu, be prepared to be totally spoilt for choice. The food is wholesome, unbelievably tasty and available all through the state. I would totally recommend tasting them on your next holiday to Assam.

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Lip Smacking Assamese Cuisine

Recently I was in the state of Assam and was lucky to taste some of the local food there. As with any state, local food can be tasted in selected restaurants that only locals seem to know or at a native home. During this trip, my car driver, who was Assamese himself guided us to Assam’s amazing food.

My personal favourite is lye saag and young bamboo shoots in a hot steaming broth that I had along with local red glutinous rice. In fact, I liked this so much that everywhere I travelled in Assam I seemed to ask for this combination for my meals. Since lye saag was not easily available in the markets, we used to buy it straight from the farm. This combination tastes best with sliced raw onions and the famous spicy Assam green chillies. This combination is extremely healthy too. No wonder the locals, who eat this as staple food are fit as a fiddle. This same combination can be had with a non-vegetarian flavour too when the Lye Saag is replaced with mutton/chicken or river fish.

My other favourite on the vegetarian menu is the Baingan Pitika (a variant of the Baingan Bharta) where the Brinjal/Eggplant is steamed in a plantain leaf and then its outer skin is burnt on the fire. This tastes much better than the traditional Baingan Bharta. On the non-vegetarian menu, there is the fish pitika and fish tenga, both of which are hot favourites and were voted as ‘yummy’ by my non-vegetarian friends. Both the fish pitika and tenga are cooked in plantain leaves. The preparation though is slightly different.

Most of Assamese cuisine is surprising not too spicy and is cooked in mustard oil which gives it that distinct flavour and aroma. And after these lip smacking meals, you can relish the aromatic Assam tea (best tasted without milk).

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