Koldil Bhaji

Assam's banana flower, stripped floret by floret and stir-fried with potato, black gram, and mustard oil, spiced as lightly as the valley spices anything

Origin: Guwahati & the Brahmaputra Valley

From the journey of Banana.

Koldil is the banana flower, the heavy reddish-purple cone that hangs below the fruit and that most of the world throws away. Assam does not. The bud is brought in whole, the dark bracts are peeled back one by one, and the pale florets inside are picked out and cleaned individually: from each one the stiff style and the transparent hood at its base are pulled away, because both go bitter and stringy in the pan. It is half an hour of work for two handfuls of flower, and it is done whilst talking. What follows is deliberately plain. Assamese cooking uses very few spices and lets the vegetable be the flavour, so the koldil goes into hot mustard oil with cubed potato, soaked black gram, onion, garlic, and green chilli, and is fried dry. Fish and pigeon versions exist, and a Kerala household would recognise the whole procedure, since vazhapoo thoran is the same flower treated the same way with coconut instead of mustard oil. Hands stain black from the sap, which is why cooks rub oil into their palms before starting, and why the cut florets go straight into water with a little lime juice or turmeric until they are wanted.

Ingredients

Vegetable

  • 1 banana flower (about 500 g), bracts removed and florets cleaned
  • 1 tbsp lime juice, for the soaking water
  • 50 g black gram (mati dal), soaked for 2 hours and drained
  • 2 medium potatoes, cut into 1.5 cm cubes

Tempering

  • 3 tbsp mustard oil
  • 1 tsp panch phoron
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 3 green chillies, slit
  • 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 100 ml water

Method

  1. Rub a little oil into your hands. Peel away the dark outer bracts and take out the rows of pale florets, pulling the hard stick-like style and the clear hood from each one. Chop the cleaned florets and drop them into water with the lime juice.
  2. Boil the chopped florets in salted water for five minutes, then drain and press out the water.
  3. Heat the mustard oil until it smokes, take it off the heat briefly, then add the panch phoron and let it crackle.
  4. Add the onion, garlic, and green chillies and fry for three minutes, then add the potato and cook for five minutes more, turning it in the oil.
  5. Add the banana flower, black gram, turmeric, and salt, pour in the water, cover, and cook over a low heat for 12 minutes.
  6. Uncover, raise the heat, and fry off any remaining moisture until the edges catch a little. Serve with rice and dal.

Notes

Banana flowers are sold fresh in South and Southeast Asian grocers and in brine in tins; the tinned ones are already cleaned and need no blanching. The same dish is made with prawns or with shredded chicken, added with the potato.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.