Northeast Indian
Ningro Sabzi (Stir-fried Fiddlehead Fern)
Ningro Sabzi (Stir-fried Fiddlehead Fern) is Northeast Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre and the cooked vegetable. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 3 cup fiddlehead fern (ningro), trimmed
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 dried red chili
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Trim the fiddlehead ferns and rinse them well, since the curled tips can hold onto grit.
- Blanch them in boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain well.
- Heat the mustard oil in a pan and let the crushed garlic and dried red chili sizzle for a few seconds.
- Add the blanched ferns, turmeric, and salt, and stir-fry over medium heat until just tender, about 6 minutes.
- Serve hot with rice and dal; this quick stir-fry is ordinary tarkari in Sikkimese Nepali kitchens, not a foraged novelty.
Serve it with
A Northeast Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Ningro Sabzi (Stir-fried Fiddlehead Fern), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
-
The protein alongside
-
What it is eaten with
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand. Ningro Sabzi (Stir-fried Fiddlehead Fern) carries none of them. That is a checked answer rather than an ingredient list nobody read.
| Allergen | In this dish |
|---|---|
| Peanuts | No |
| Tree nuts | No |
| Dairy | No |
| Gluten | No |
| Shellfish | No |
| Eggs | No |
| Soy | No |
| Fish | No |
| Sesame | No |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Light
- Protein
- Low
- Food groups it covers
- Vegetables
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Ningro Sabzi (Stir-fried Fiddlehead Fern) takes about 20 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is easy going. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. It is at its best in spring, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.
Watch someone make it
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Until then this is one still image, which is why the page opens as quickly as it does.
More to cook
From the same kitchens
More cooking from Northeast India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.