How Bengal’s widows overcame dietary restrictions and birthed delicacies that made their way into mainstream cuisine

Bengal’s widows were not allowed to eat non-vegetarian food, onion, garlic, chilis, or even masoor dal, which is considered to be non-vegetarian in Bengal – a belief that stems from a myth based on the Mahabharata, which links it to the blood of the divine cow Kamdhenu.

But necessity is the mother of invention, and it is the resourceful Bengali widow who cooked up the most delicious vegetarian dishes, which are today considered to be delicacies and the cornerstone of Bengali cuisine. Also, because the widows in the family were made to eat food separately from the family and their food was cooked separately, they were able to experiment with limited ingredients and complex cooking techniques. And from this emerged what we know as Bengali widow cuisine.

The recipes relied on easily available ingredients like brinjal, pumpkin, potato and beans, which were cooked with limited spices such as mustard, nigella seeds, green chillies and ginger. This is also a reason why no vegetarian preparation in Bengal uses garlic in it. Poppy seeds and bori (sun-dried lentil dumplings) were included.

Labra, a mixed vegetable dish, uses a mix of naturally sweet and savoury vegetables that are flavoured with mustard seeds and ginger and the Bengali five-spice combo. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Influence on modern Bengali meals

When you read the list of vegetarian delicacies which are commonplace today, you will realise the impact Bengali widow cuisine had on defining the region’s repertoire of dishes. Begun Pora is one such preparation in which smoky, roasted brinjal is mashed with some mustard oil and green chilis. Alu bati chorchori is a simple preparation of potato and tomato, flavoured with green chillis, nigella seeds, and turmeric. Alu posto, a popular dish, is a simple combination of potatoes, nigella seeds, green chilli, and posto or poppyseed, and is considered such a delicacy that most feasts will always have it on the menu.

The lack of ingredients and the need to use up whatever was left in the kitchen after the food was cooked for the rest of the family, led to even vegetable peels and scraps being cooked.

One of my favourites, which was common at our dining table while growing up, was alur khosha bhaja, which is simply potato peels fried to a crisp, to be eaten with dal and rice. Lauer khosha bhaja, which is fried peels of lauki, or neem-begun bhaja, which is neem leaves and diced brinjals flavoured with salt and fried, and the very organic waste-not-want-not preparation with the stems of the cauliflower to make phulkopir data chorchori.

Taking cue from non-veg dishes, flavours

Another defining feature of Bengali widow cuisine, and of course of Bengali cuisine today, is the development of vegetarian recipes which are meant to taste like or at least resemble non-vegetarian dishes. Koftas were made with green bananas, and kanchkolar kofta – with meatball-shaped koftas and potato in a spiced gravy – is considered a difficult dish to prepare.

Yet another interesting preparation is the niramish deemer dalna. Bengalis love egg curry for some reason, and in this ‘vegetarian’ version of the egg curry, homemade cottage cheese or chhana is used to form oval “boiled eggs” which are cooked in gravy.

The use of jackfruits began with the widows, to make niramish maangsho (vegetarian mutton) and echorer dalna (jackfruit curry) in the absence of meat. There are other very interesting preparations which you will find across Bengali homes and which I have noticed popping up in “thali” meals and supper clubs. And I couldn’t be more glad.

Getting creative with what’s available

The leaves of the bottle gourd or lauki are used to prepare lau pata bata. These leaves, which are usually discarded, are ground with green chilis, soaked and ground mustard seeds, and mustard oil. Kumror bichi bata uses pumpkin seeds to make a paste. Yes, the same pumpkin seeds which we lap up on organic bread. Sundried balls of lentil or bori were created to add flavour, texture and protein to dishes. Bori can be made with a gravy or with poppyseed or simply fried and added to spinach and other vegetarian dishes – and today, to fish curries as well.

Before the saatvik brigade discovered the wonders of papaya, Bengal’s widows were preparing peper dalna or a lightly spiced papaya curry. Flattened rice or chire was mixed with seasonal vegetables, peanuts and sugar to make a piquant chirer pulao. Paturi, usually made with fish, was prepared with flat beans or sheem, coated in mustard and sometimes coconut paste, wrapped in banana leaf parcels and steamed to make sheem paturi.

Another saatvik vegetable, ridge gourd or turai was cooked with poppy seed paste, green chillies and mustard oil to make jhinge posto. My absolute favourite, and a fixture on any festivity or celebratory menu, labra, also took birth with the genius of the Bengali widows.

Labra is as healthy and tasty as it gets. A Bengali mixed vegetable dish, it uses a mix of naturally sweet and savoury vegetables of differing textures such as pumpkin, brinjal, radish, and spinach, which are flavoured with mustard seeds and ginger and the Bengali five-spice combo. Kochu’r shaak ghonto, another delicacy that is quite complicated to prepare, uses the often overlooked stems of taro mixed with dal and spices to create a delicious and healthy preparation.

Thanks to a dark part of our history, Bengal now has a vast repertoire of vegetarian delicacies which are lightly spiced, sauteed and steamed and rarely fried, highlighting the flavours of the vegetables themselves and ingredients such as poppyseed, mustard or five-spice. And for that, we must be grateful to Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who paved the way for widow remarriage and the equal status granted to widows in Bengal, while not forgetting the widows who took their regressive conditions and made the best of it, creating cuisine that turned into staples on our dining tables.

Next week, I’m going to stick my neck and taste buds out and weigh in on whether Kerala deserves to have made it to Lonely Planet’s top culinary experiences for 2026.

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