Moola Bhaji. Bengali Vegetable Dish. Free From.

Moola Bhaji

Moola. Mooli. White radish. Daikon. To me, I thought this was just like a giant radish which should be chopped up into salad and eaten raw! 🙂

With a slightly milder taste than the traditional round pink radishes, this was a vegetable I’d often seen but never really given any thought. Hah… well! how mistaken was I! Little did I know that mooli is used a lot in Asian cookery. On one of my cooking-with-friends days, this was suddenly remembered, created and was a very tasty lunch! 🙂 This particular friend of mine brought the mooli with her from the local Sri Lankan shop and once it was all chopped up, this dish was quickly created (and devoured)! Yum! Another vegetable to add to my regulars 🙂 This dish I am told is a traditional Bengali dish… although of course being Life Diet Health it’s had a few healthy tweaks! 🙂 The word ‘bhaji’ to me makes me think of onion bhajis and the crisp batter this entails but, ‘bhaji’ actually just means ‘fried’! 😛 🙂

Gather

  • 1 mooli – long white radish (approximately 270g)
  • 5-10g coconut oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (we used Pink Himalayan)
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds (kalonji/onion seeds)

Prepare

  1. Peel the mooli and chop into matchstick shapes
  2. Melt the coconut oil and add the mooli. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring to coat in the oil.
  3. Add the salt and curry and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle over the nigella seeds and cook for 5 minutes. Do a taste and crunch test and add more salt if necessary.
  5. Enjoy!

Serve and Store

  • We ate this with some five minute flatbreads and a simple version of quick chickpeas which we made whilst the mooli was cooking.
  • Serve as a side to lentil pakoras 🙂
  • Add a grain – brown rice, millet, quinoa and some salad
  • We ate it all up so storing was not an option! If you have any left I would keep it covered and refrigerated for up to three days.

No Comments

  • Delicious Peace of Mind 19th March 2015 at 14:43

    Yummy! I never thought of sauteing daikon. The whole meal looks amazing! My only regret is that you haven’t started your blog sooner, while we still ate cooked food, so we can try all your delicious recipes! 🙂

    Reply
    • Life Diet Health 19th March 2015 at 15:06

      Oh Milica… I forgot you only do raw! Ooo, then I need help from you! (to save me googling and getting distracted)! Some of my recipes I can make raw or at least what I think of as raw but things like melting coconut oil? How do you do that?

      Reply
      • Delicious Peace of Mind 19th March 2015 at 15:32

        I keep my coconut oil on room temperature, so it is always in liquid state. On the other hand, cacao butter I heat it on stove, but I hold a dish 20-30cm over flame, just to warm it up. I look ridiculous while doing it, too! 🙂

        Reply
        • Life Diet Health 19th March 2015 at 15:39

          Wow… your house must be hot! Our coconut oil is always solid and never in the fridge! Ooo.. cacao butter where did I put that…

          Reply
  • Delicious Peace of Mind 20th March 2015 at 09:22

    Well, we do have pretty good heating, I won’t complain! We have run out of cacao butter, can’t wait to get it again. Its aroma… indescribable…

    Reply
  • Mooli Korma | Life Diet Health 26th March 2015 at 11:19

    […] week I posted a recipe for moola bhaji as I discovered that you could actually cook that long white radish! I have since been experimenting […]

    Reply
  • Sophie33 30th March 2015 at 07:51

    I only recently discovered daikon & love it too! This recipe sounds ideal & very tasty! x

    Reply
    • Life Diet Health 30th March 2015 at 07:57

      Sophieee 🙂 Isn’t it a wonderful vegetable! It’s a very tasty dish indeed! 🙂

      Reply

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