Aloo Phulkopir Dalna | Bengali Cauliflower Curry Recipe - Indian Vegetarian Recipes (2024)

This Cauliflower Curry or Aloo Phulkopir Dalna (Bengali Cauliflower & Potato Curry) recipe is a perfect example of Bengali niramish ranna or Indian vegetarian cooking. It is vegan, gluten-free, paleo-friendly, nut-free and a complete plant-based Indian curry dish. Here, cauliflower florets are cooked with potato cubes in a pantry with basic Indian spices. If you are looking for easy cauliflower recipes for rice, then you are in luck!

If you are familiar with some of the Indian Cauliflower Recipes, then you must have heard of Aloo Gobhi. This Aloo Phulkopir Dalna is the east Indian version of the same, albeit a niramish or vegetarian version of it.

Niramish Indian cooking is quite different from vegetarian recipes. Bengali niramish recipes are absolutely devoid of meat, chicken, fish, eggs, couple of other ingredients like red lentils or masoor dal, onion, garlic, etc. among others. Essentially everyday niramish Bengali recipes are no-onion and no-garlic plant-based recipes. Much like Jain recipes, though not exactly the same!

Easy Indian Cauliflower Recipes – Niramish Fulkopi Aloo Tarkari in Bengali style

There are plenty of Cauliflower recipes in Indian cuisine. It’s a very popular vegetable during the winter months. So it becomes a very frequent visitor on a Bengali household’s dinner table. Let’s understand the meaning of Aloo Phulkopir Dalna. Aloo means Potato, Phulkopi means Cauliflower and Dalna means niramish or vegetarian curry which is usually made with ginger and cumin seeds paste.

Among different cauliflower recipes, vegan ones are quite easy to find especially Bengali phulkopir tarkari recipes. Most of them are cooked in mustard oil with no use of dairy products. In this cauliflower curry recipe, I have used some ghee or clarified butter in the end, but it is completely optional and can be easily omitted for a completely vegan option.

Here’s the list of ingredients needed for Aloo Phulkopir Dalna:

• Cauliflower – As the name says, this is the star of the dish. Here you will see that I have gone through an extra step of frying the cauliflower florets separately. Since the rest of the dish comes together pretty quickly, it is very important to cook the cauliflower florets completely
• Potatoes – Like most of the Bengali vegetarian dishes, aloo phoolkopir dalna also consists of potatoes. Mostly it is done to increase the portion size
• Mustard Oil – Like most other Bengali recipes, This is also cooked in Mustard oil
• Ghee – In the end of the recipe, I have used some ghee. It enhances the taste and adds a certain amount of richness to the dish. However, this is completely avoidable if you are watching your diet or you are looking for a Cauliflower Curry vegan recipe
• Spices – The list of spices for this recipe is very small. All you need is freshly grated ginger, cumin seeds along with hing or asafoetida, and dried bay leaf. Here, if you do not have hing or dried bay leaf, it’s perfectly fine to cook this cauliflower curry without them. These are the common ingredients in an Indian kitchen, however, if you are new to Indian cooking or simply prefer eating out at your nearest Indian restaurant, it is unlikely that you would invest in such spices
• Powdered Spices – The usuals like cumin powder, coriander powder and my homemade garam masala powder has been used here. If you prefer heat, you may use some red chilli powder. Otherwise, if you are like me, you can use fresh green chilli to add a little bit of heat with a great deal of flavour

Step-by-step instructions on how to make Aloo Phulkopir Dalna in Bengali style

1. Heat some mustard oil in a non-stick pan and add the uniformly cut cauliflower florets.
2. Add turmeric powder and season with some salt for better frying. At this stage, you may keep the heat on lower-medium and cover and fry. This would cook the cauliflower thoroughly.
3. Once you see that they have charred at the edges and are uniformly fried like shown here, take them out. Use a slotted spoon so as to drain the excess oil.

4. In the same pan, we are going to fry the potatoes as well. So add some oil (if needed) and add the potato cubes. You may again cover the pan with a lid so that the potatoes get cooked nicely
5. Poke a knife at the centre of one of the cubes to check if they have been cooked
6. Move the potato cubes aside and temper the oil with hing, cumin seeds, dried bay leaf and green chillies. Give everything a good mix

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7. Now, add the fried cauliflower and give everything a good mix
8. Add freshly grated ginger, cumin powder and coriander powder. Stir everything nicely so that the spice powder is mixed properly

9. At this stage season with salt and add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and sugar. Mix well. If needed, splash some water and mix everything well. Do this only if you feel that the spices are in lumps or need to get mixed properly
10. Before turning off the heat, add the garam masala powder and a drizzle of ghee or clarified butter. Vegans may omit the ghee at this stage. Turn off the heat and serve

How to serve Bengali Aloo Fulkopir Dalna for an authentic Bengali niramish meal

This Indian vegetarian cauliflower curry is an excellent side dish for lunch or dinner. You can serve daal or Indian lentil soups and rice with this cauliflower recipe of Aloo Phulkopir Dalna. Add some Tomato Chutney to the menu and it is going to be a big hit.

Few more Indian Vegetarian recipes for you –

• Ol er Dalna | Bengali Yam Curry Recipe
• Choto Alur Dom Recipe | Bengali Baby Potato Curry
• Phulkopir Chechki | Aloo Phulkopir Tarkari Recipe
• Phulkopir Roast | Cauliflower Pot Roast Recipe
• Punjabi Palak Paneer Recipe
• Spinach Flatbread | Palak Roti Recipe
• Palak Parantha | Spinach Flat Bread Recipe
• Fresh Methi Paratha Recipe
• Punjabi Dry Aloo Methi Recipe | Potatoes Sauteed with Fenugreek Leaves
• Aloo Pyaz Sabji or Potato-Onion Curry Recipe
• Jeera Aloo | Pan Roasted Potatoes Recipe

Have you tried this recipe?I would love to hear about it.
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