'Bhey', as referred to in north India, is a popular lotus stem recipe but I didn't stumble upon it until after my marriage. My husband once asked me "Have you eaten Bhey Mutter". My immediate response was "What is Bhey?" He then told me that it is one of the popular delicacies in Punjabi cuisine & one of his favorites. I then had to Google this recipe or even better option - ask my mother-in-law 🙂 She is an excellent cook & my go-to-person for any authentic Punjabi recipe. By the way it is also referred to as 'Kamal Kakdi' in few parts of the country.
This is one of those rare Punjabi recipes that I cooked before I could taste it in a restaurant or elsewhere. But I realized that its easy & simply delicious.
Lets get started.
For those who are unfamiliar with lotus stem - it looks like this. You can use fresh or frozen ones as available in your market/grocery stores.
Ingredients
2 -2 ½ cups of Bhey/lotus stem/lotus root cut into thin roundels.
1 cup of green peas
1 medium onion finely chopped
½ cup of tomato paste/puree (or use 2 finely chopped medium tomatoes)
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp cumin seeds (zeera)
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
½ tbsp coriander powder
½ tsp garam masala
1-2tbsp of oil
salt to taste
coriander leaves for garnishing
Method
- Heat oil in a pan. Once hot add cumin seeds. When they splutter add onions & mix.
- When the onions become transparent, add ginger garlic paste & mix.
- Cook till onions turn light brown. Now add tomato puree & stir.
- Then add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, salt & stir to mix well. Cook for another 5mins till masala (mixture) is well cooked.
- Add the lotus stem & around ½ cup of water (or as required) to avoid the masala getting burnt. This will also aid in the cooking of lotus stem. Cover to cook for another 10-15 mins or till Lotus stems are partially cooked. Then add the green peas & cook it till peas become soft.
- Lastly add the garam masala, coriander leaves & mix well.
Lotus stem is naturally crunchy so even after they are completely cooked you will not find them soft. That's the uniqueness of this recipe.
Hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I did 🙂 Drop your comments to let me know if you liked it.
Happy Cooking!!!
Shweta
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Lovely looking recipe...Will try it 🙂
Himali
Thanks Ansh!
Sure, will try this recipe & let you know. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
Being a Kashmiri, Lotus roots are my addiction. But I have never made them with peas. Sounds delicious.
U CAN MAKE PAKODAS OF BHEY BOIL BHEY AND PUT ALL DRY MASALAS AND THEN FRY IN BESAN BATTER ADD SOME RED CHILLY POWDER AND SALT IN THE BATTER
Thanks Sneha - sure try it that way & let me know how it turned out.
wow looks really yummy from the texture. Can we fry and put it in the gravy? But will try this at home.
Thanks:) Definitely!!! more recipes coming soon
Thanks Kanchan - do try it & let me know how it turned out
Thanks Garima 🙂 More recipes coming soon!!!
Hi Shalu, you can easily eat it with rice. Increase the quantity of water if you like.
Good start with deleicious recipe. Hoping to get more n more from you.
grt recipe, thnx for sharing...
Kanchan
Thumbs up to your blog ..
Mouth watering dish .. waiting for more recipes.
Regards
Garima
Thanks for posting.
One question though - is it very thick to be eaten with rice?
- Shalu, USA