My Food Story is a collection of stories and recipes that celebrate India’s traditional plant-based ingredients sourced from local biodiversity. You can see these recipes on our interactive dashboard (https://www.cseindia.org/page/myfoodstory).
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Before I knew where Kashmir was on the map, I knew its smell in my grandmother’s kitchen.
Monje Haakh or sun-dried kohlrabi greens would come in crinkled newspaper bundles from the Valley to our home in Himachal. My grandmother treated them with care, soaking the stalks, heating mustard oil till it smoked, and adding just hing and salt. That was all. Yet, what came out was more than food. It was memory, survival, and home.
I still remember my grandmother in woollen layers, humming softly, the smell of mustard oil clinging to her shawl and to my childhood.
Every winter, we cook Monje Haakh, simple and bitter-green, no fancy spices. And each time I taste it, I feel her close again in the steam, in the silence, in the story it carries.
Monje Haakh
Monje (Kohlrabi) – 2 to 3 medium-sized (with tender greens)
Mustard oil – 1 to 2 tablespoons
Green chillies – 2 to 3 (slit)
Garlic cloves – 4 to 5 (optional, traditional in some versions)
Asafoetida (Hing) – a pinch
Salt (to taste)
Water – 1 to 1.5 cups (as needed)
To make Monje Haakh, first clean the kohlrabi thoroughly, peel the bulbs, slice them, and roughly chop the tender leaves and stems. In a pot, add the chopped kohlrabi, leaves, green chillies, salt, and enough water to cover, then boil for 10-15 minutes until soft. Meanwhile, heat mustard oil in a separate pan until it smokes, then lower the heat and add a pinch of hing (asafoetida); a few garlic cloves can also be added if you like. Pour this hot-tempered oil into the boiled monje and let it all simmer together for 5-7 minutes so the flavours blend. Serve warm with plain rice simple, healthy, and soulful.
Akriti Mattu is a social entrepreneur from Himachal Pradesh