Hill Kitchen Journal

Nepali Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Six recipes carried down from Himalayan hill kitchens, built the way they always were, on ghee, roasted spice, and the slow patience of a wood-fired chulo. Never a drop of vegetable oil.

See the Recipes
How This Kitchen Cooks

Three Rules That Never Change

  1. 01
    Ghyu First

    Ghee, Never Oil

    Every dish in this journal starts the same way, with a spoon of clarified butter, not a jug of vegetable oil. It is how hill kitchens cooked long before seed oil ever reached a Himalayan market shelf, and it is the one ingredient we never trade away.

  2. 02
    Masala, Roasted

    Spice Bloomed in Fat

    Whole cumin, coriander, and dried chili are toasted in hot ghee before anything else touches the pan. It is a small step that most recipes skip and hill cooks never do, and it is where most of the flavor in this journal actually comes from.

  3. 03
    Chulo Method

    Cooked Low, Cooked Slow

    From a pot of dal simmered until it turns creamy to milk reduced patiently for sweets, nothing here is rushed. It is the same unhurried pace a wood-fired chulo has always set, long before a stovetop dial could set it for you.

From the Journal

Six Recipes, One Rule

Every recipe below is written the way it is actually cooked in a hill kitchen: ghee for the fat, whole spice for the base, and patience for everything else.

Nepal's best-known dumpling: spiced minced chicken folded into a thin dough and steamed over broth, finished with a ghee-warmed tomato achar spooned on the side instead of poured in oil.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground chicken thigh
  • 1 small onion, minced fine
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 inch ginger, minced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp Timur pepper or black pepper
  • 3 tbsp ghee, divided
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus water and salt for dough
  • 2 ripe tomatoes and 1 dried chili, for the achar

Method

  1. Knead flour, a pinch of salt, and warm water into a smooth dough. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
  2. Warm 1 tbsp ghee in a pan and soften the onion, garlic, and ginger for 3 minutes.
  3. Combine the softened onion mix with the raw chicken, cilantro, cumin, coriander, and pepper. Season with salt.
  4. Roll the dough into thin rounds, spoon in the filling, and pleat closed into small pouches.
  5. Steam over simmering water for 12 to 14 minutes, until the wrapper turns glossy.
  6. For the achar, char the tomatoes and chili, blend roughly, then finish with the remaining ghee warmed and stirred through.
  7. Serve the momo hot with the achar spooned alongside.

A Terai lowland classic: small river fish rubbed in turmeric and chili, dusted with rice flour, and shallow-fried in ghee until the edges turn crisp and golden.

Ingredients

  • 4 small whole river fish or firm fillets
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp red chili powder
  • 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
  • 3 tbsp rice flour
  • 4 tbsp ghee
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 8 to 10 curry leaves
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 lime, cut into wedges

Method

  1. Clean the fish and pat completely dry.
  2. Rub with turmeric, chili powder, ginger garlic paste, and salt. Let it sit 15 minutes.
  3. Dust each piece lightly in rice flour just before frying.
  4. Heat the ghee in a wide pan until shimmering, then fry the fish 3 to 4 minutes per side until crisp.
  5. Lift the fish out and set on a rack.
  6. In the same ghee, briefly temper the mustard seeds and curry leaves until they pop.
  7. Spoon the tempered ghee over the fish and serve with lime wedges.

A rustic hill-style saag: mustard leaves and spinach wilted down in ghee with garlic, ginger, and dried chili, the side dish that shows up at nearly every Nepali table.

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch mustard greens, chopped
  • 1 bunch spinach, chopped
  • 3 tbsp ghee
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 inch ginger, julienned
  • 2 dried red chilies
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • Salt to taste

Method

  1. Wash the greens thoroughly and chop roughly.
  2. Melt the ghee in a wide pot over medium heat.
  3. Add cumin seeds and dried chilies, and let them sizzle for 30 seconds.
  4. Stir in the garlic and ginger, cooking until just golden.
  5. Add the tomato and turmeric, cooking until softened.
  6. Fold in the greens in batches, letting each batch wilt before adding more.
  7. Cook uncovered 8 to 10 minutes, season with salt, and serve warm.

A warming red lentil soup simmered until soft, finished the traditional way with a sizzling ghee tarka poured over the top just before it reaches the table.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup red lentils (masoor dal), rinsed
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • Salt to taste
  • 3 tbsp ghee
  • 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 dried red chilies
  • Pinch of asafoetida
  • 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Method

  1. Bring the lentils, water, turmeric, and salt to a boil, then simmer 20 to 25 minutes until soft.
  2. Whisk the lentils lightly to break them down into a loose, creamy soup. Adjust water for thickness.
  3. In a small pan, melt the ghee over medium heat.
  4. Add cumin seeds, garlic, and chilies, and cook until the garlic turns golden.
  5. Stir in the asafoetida off the heat.
  6. Pour the sizzling ghee tarka directly over the finished dal.
  7. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.

A whole wheat flatbread rolled thin and roasted on a hot tawa, brushed edge to edge with ghee until it blisters and puffs at the center.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour, plus extra for rolling
  • 3/4 cup warm water, approximately
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ghee, softened, for the dough
  • 4 tbsp ghee, melted, for cooking

Method

  1. Mix the flour, salt, and softened ghee, then add water gradually to form a smooth, firm dough.
  2. Knead 5 minutes, cover, and rest 20 minutes.
  3. Divide into 8 balls and roll each into a thin round on a floured surface.
  4. Heat a dry tawa or heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
  5. Cook the roti about 1 minute per side, until small bubbles form.
  6. Brush both sides generously with melted ghee and press gently until it puffs.
  7. Stack under a cloth to keep warm and serve immediately.

A festival tradition: whole milk reduced slowly with ghee until it thickens into a dense sweet, cut into small pieces and finished with cardamom and chopped nuts.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 3 tbsp ghee, plus extra for greasing
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup milk powder
  • 4 green cardamom pods, crushed
  • 2 tbsp chopped pistachio
  • 2 tbsp chopped almond
  • A few strands of saffron, optional

Method

  1. Simmer the milk in a wide, heavy pan over medium heat, stirring often, until it reduces by about half.
  2. Add the ghee gradually, stirring it in fully each time.
  3. Stir in the sugar and milk powder, and keep cooking, stirring constantly so it does not catch.
  4. Cook until the mixture thickens into a mass that starts pulling away from the sides of the pan.
  5. Fold in the crushed cardamom and saffron, if using.
  6. Pour into a greased tray and press flat with a spatula.
  7. Scatter the nuts on top, press gently, cool completely, then cut into squares.
Our Kitchen

A Small Record of Hill Cooking

Tungro Bhansa began as a simple idea: write down Himalayan recipes the way hill kitchens have always cooked them, with ghee, patience, and whatever grows nearby. Long before vegetable oil reached a Kathmandu market shelf, kitchens across the hills turned to clarified butter for nearly everything, from the tarka that finishes a bowl of dal to the roti brushed golden on a hot tawa.

This is a small, independent collection of that cooking. We test each recipe more than once, adjust it for how a home kitchen actually works, and write down only what we would hand to a neighbor asking how a dish is really made. There is nothing on this site to buy. It is simply a record of Himalayan food, kept the old way.

"Ghee is not a substitute for anything. In the hills, it was always the beginning."

A saying passed down in hill kitchens

Cook Something This Week

Start with the dal. It is the fastest way to taste what a ghee tarka actually does to a bowl of soup.

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