Suva ni Bhaji

Gujarati dill cooked down as a green vegetable with split pigeon peas and a mustard-seed tempering

Origin: Gujarat, Western India

From the journey of Dill.

Almost everywhere else on this map dill is scattered over a finished dish. Gujarat cooks it as a vegetable. The plant is a different one. Anethum sowa, Indian dill, called suva in Gujarati and shepu in Marathi, is coarser than the European herb, higher in dillapiole, and carries a camphoraceous edge that European dill does not. Botanists disagree over whether it is a separate species or a subspecies, but no cook who has used both would confuse them. It stands up to being stewed for twenty minutes in a way that Anethum graveolens simply does not. It is a cold-season crop, sold through the winter by the bundle with the roots still on, and it wilts within hours of cutting, so it is bought and cooked the same day. The standard treatment is to chop the whole thing, leaves and tender stalk together, and cook it down with a pulse: tuvar dal, split pigeon peas, in the Gujarati version, or with potato, or with fresh green chickpeas in season. The seasoning is the vaghar, the Gujarati tempering, which goes in first rather than last: hot oil, mustard seed left until it pops, cumin, asafoetida, and green chilli. Everything else is built on top of it. A pinch of jaggery and a squeeze of lemon go in at the end, which is the Gujarati signature, since the cooking of that state is sweeter and sourer than its neighbours'. It is everyday food, eaten with rotli and a bowl of kadhi, and it is one of the few dishes anywhere that lets the herb be the whole point.

Ingredients

Dal

100 g tuvar dal (split pigeon peas), rinsed
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
400 ml water

Greens

400 g fresh Indian dill (suva/shepu), leaves and tender stalks, finely chopped

Tempering

3 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
0.25 tsp asafoetida (hing)
3 whole green chillies, slit lengthways
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped, optional

Seasoning

1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp jaggery, grated

To Finish

1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

Simmer the dal with the turmeric and the water for 25 to 30 minutes until soft but still holding some shape, or pressure cook for two whistles. Do not let it collapse into a purée.
Wash the dill thoroughly in several changes of water, which it needs, then chop the leaves and the tender upper stalks together and discard anything thicker than a matchstick.
Heat the oil in a wide heavy pan until shimmering. Add the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop and crackle properly before doing anything else.
Add the cumin, then the asafoetida, then the green chillies and the garlic if using, and fry for thirty seconds until fragrant.
Tip in the chopped dill all at once. It will fill the pan and collapse within a minute or two. Stir to coat it in the tempering.
Cook uncovered over a medium heat for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, until the dill has wilted right down and lost its raw smell.
Add the cooked dal with any liquid, the salt, and the jaggery. Simmer together for a further eight to ten minutes until thick and no longer watery.
Take off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, taste, and adjust the salt, jaggery, and lemon until it is savoury, faintly sweet, and faintly sour all at once.

Notes

Indian dill is sold by South Asian grocers through the winter as suva, shepu, or sowa bhaji. European dill can be used at roughly half the weight and added only in the last three minutes, but it is a genuinely different dish; the Indian plant is what the recipe is built around. The Marathi version, shepuchi bhaji, is close to identical and often uses moong dal in place of tuvar. A Rajasthani variant uses no pulse at all and adds gram flour to bind. Serve with rotli or bajra rotla, plain rice, plain yoghurt, and a spoonful of pickle. It keeps for two days and the flavour deepens, though the colour dulls. Dill seed goes into the same regional cooking separately, in the tempering pan and in Ayurvedic digestive preparations, which is the same property that made dill water a European nursery remedy.

The Gastrographer

Name: Suva ni Bhaji
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Western India
Ingredients: 100 g tuvar dal (split pigeon peas), rinsed; 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 400 ml water; 400 g fresh Indian dill (suva/shepu), leaves and tender stalks, finely chopped; 3 tbsp groundnut oil; 1 tsp black mustard seeds; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 0.25 tsp asafoetida (hing); 3 whole green chillies, slit lengthways; 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped, optional; 1 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 tsp jaggery, grated; 1 tbsp lemon juice

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control