Kashmiri Nadru Yakhni | Lotus root in yogurt sauce

Lotus root! I have seen it, eaten it as chips but I haven’t really cooked with it. Actually, I didn’t know how to cook with it. So when Priya asked me to use Lotus root and curd / yogurt in a vegetarian dish, what did i do? I googled – lotus root and yogurt-oh my, the land of Kashmiri recipes came up with a variety of Kashmiri Nadru Yakhni. After going through a lot of recipes, here is my version of Kashmiri Nadru Yakhni (Lotus root in Yogurt sauce). This post is for Ssshhh Cooking Secretly Challenge. I was Paired with Priya, who gave me the root and curd as the core ingredients to prepare a delicious dish.

Kashmiri Nadru Yakhni is a very typical Kashmiri style dish, which does not contain onions or garlic. The typical taste to this dish is because of the addition of various aromatics such as cloves, cinnamon and black cardamom.

Getting the main ingredient (Lotus root) proved quite difficult in our area. I searched for quite a few days in various shops and then ultimately found in it”My Mark” stores. As you can imagine, have only eaten slices of lotus root as chips…i did not know what to expect when i went to buy it. It looked like thick stick with closed ends on both sides. The guy at the counter was sweet and explained to me the way that the root needs to be cut and cleaned…phew!!! Now, that the initial part of “purchasing” of ingredients was over, the real work starts…cleaning…well we are not near cooking as of yet 🙂

CLEANING THE LOTUS ROOT

First, wash the lotus root from the outside, then slice them diagonally and then submerge all the sliced pieces in water for about 30 mins. This would generally remove most of the dirt from with the root…but if there are places where it is still not clean…cotton buds are the way to go..Now that the cleaning / prep work is completed..let us prepare some delicious Kashmiri Nadru Yakhni / lotus root in yogurt sauce…this dish can be easily paired with rice or rotis.

Psst …the beauty of this recipe..it’s a one pot / cooker recipe…

Print Recipe

Kashmiri Nadru Yakhni (Lotus root in yogurt sauce)

Course

Main Dish

Cuisine

Indian

Servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup lotus root (cleaned and sliced)
• 1 cup fresh yogurt
• 1 tsp Besan/ gram flour
• 2 nos green cardamon
• 1 nos black cardamon
• 2 tbsp Ghee / clarified butter
• 1 tsp dry ginger powder
• 2 tsp fennel seeds powder (dry roast the seeds and then powder)
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1 nos green chilli (slit)
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/4th tsp Hing/ asafoetida powder
• 1 cup water
• Salt (according to taste)
• 1 tbsp Coriander leaves (finely chopped)

Course Main Dish Cuisine Indian Servings Ingredients 1 cup lotus root (cleaned and sliced) 1 cup fresh yogurt 1 tsp Besan/ gram flour 2 nos green cardamon 1 nos black cardamon 2 tbsp Ghee / clarified butter 1 tsp dry ginger powder 2 tsp fennel seeds powder (dry roast the seeds and then powder) 1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder 1 nos green chilli (slit) 1 tsp Cumin seeds 1/4th tsp Hing/ asafoetida powder 1 cup water Salt (according to taste) 1 tbsp Coriander leaves (finely chopped)

Instructions

1. Clean and slice the lotus root s and set aside
2. In a small cooker, heat 1 tbsp of ghee and add all the aromatic spices and mix well
3. Add the lotus roots and mix well with the aromatics
4. Now add the salt, green chillies and water and let it simmer for 2 minutes
5. Now close the cooker and the lotus steam cook in the spices. Let it cook for at least 5 -6 whistles and then set it aside
6. Once the cooker cools down, open the cooker and add a pinch of fennel seed powder, and mixture of yogurt and besan
7. Mix all the ingredients and let the sauce simmer for another 10-15 minutes
8. To finish, add some chopped coriander leaves as garnish and serve with cooked rice or rotis