Shukto is a Traditional Bengali recipe. It is made with different types of vegetables. However, it derives its distinctive flavor from one vegetable in particular: Bitter Gourd or Bitter Melon, also known as Karela in Hindi. It is a vegetable stew or you could also call it a bitter gourd stew or bitter melon stew.
Yet, still Shukto has a medley of different flavors and taste. You have the bitter taste of bitter gourd with the unique individual tastes of the different vegetables in it.
I have never had Shukto in my life. The only bengali dishes I have had are baingan bhaja, rosogulla, sandesh and mishti doi.
Bengalis have their own rich cuisine, but I never got an opportunity to partake from this cuisine nor I have made any bengali dishes except baingan bhaja, sandesh and mishti doi. The last two were disasters 
But I hope I will be able to make the perfect sandesh and mishti doi one day. I will still try to make them once more……. as they say never give up…. keep on trying…..
I am fond of bittergourd or karela as they are called, so its alright for me to make a dish like this one. My hubby, does not like the sight of bittergourd in any way…. and I was a little worried whether he will like this recipe. To my surprise he not only liked it but asked me to make it again.
There are many versions of Shukto recipes on the internet. Personally, I do not know which one is authentic or right. So I decided to take this shukto recipe from the book – The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking
There was a reason for this. This book has some Bengali recipes. I have made a couple of non-bengali recipes from the book like bhatura, gobhi aloo and the results were too good. So i thought there was no harm in trying the bengali recipes from the book.
Personally, both me and my hubby liked the taste of the Shukto recipe adapted from The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking. We had it for dinner with parathas.
For me, this shukto, somewhat had a faint similarity and tasted like avial. Thats because this recipe uses curd unlike other recipes on the internet. Its healthy, sattvic, nutritious and a complete food when you have it with chapatis or rice.
You could use vegetables that you have in your kitchen. I used cabbage and bottlegourd even though the recipe does not mention it. I used carrots too. I did not have brinjals and caulifower as given in the original recipe. So its alright to use the vegetables you have.
The recipes uses the famous bengali medley of 5 spices: Panch Phoron/Panch Phoran. More on Panch Phoron on this link: Panch Phoron
Now for the Shukto recipe 
ingredients
- 2 or 3 Bittergourd/karelas
- 1/2 cup chopped cabbage/cauliflower
- 1/2 cup chopped beans/or 1/4 cup peas
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped potatoes
- 1/2 cup squash or eggplant or bottlegourd
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 inch ginger piece
- 1-2 fresh chillies. I used 1 chilli
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp panch phoron
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida
- 1 cup plain curd/yoghurt
- salt
method:
- Peel the skin of the bitter gourd and cut them into 1 inch cubes
- Heat 2 tbsp ghee. Fry the fenugreek seeds for 3o seconds.
- Then add all the chopped vegetables.
- Add the bay leaves and stir-fry the vegetables for 5 minutes on a medium flame. Turn them gently.
- Now pour half of the water, cover the pan and cook the veggies on a medium heat for 10 mins.
- In a mortar and pestle or in blender, grind together the cumin seeds, ginger, chillies, turmeric with a few drops of water. Make a smooth masala paste.
- Heat the remaining 1 tbsp ghee in a pan. Add the masala paste and stir fry for a minute or two.
- Then add the panch phoron, coriander powder and asafoetida. Stir for a few seconds.
- Pour the remaining water into the masala and bring to a boil for 1 minute.
- Empty the liquid masala into the cooking veggies and continue cooking over medium heat for 15 to 2o minutes, stiriring every now and then, until the veggies become tender.
- Finally, fold in the yoghurt and salt. Stir and toss gently to mix the spices and sauce evenly with the vegetables. Simmer for a minute uncovered as you do not want the yoghurt to spilt.
- Serve as a main dish with rice or chapati, phulkas, parathas.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Shame shame shame rani never learnt how to cook,
She asks her aunt “should i put masala in the curry?”
She adds chillies in shukto and ghee in chutney!
After cooking rice kheer she asks wether to drain the water!
Translation of the poem
thanks jojo for the translation of the poem
Poppy, darun diyecho! Onek din por kobits ta podlam:-)
There should be no chillis in Shukto and no ghee in Ambol (paatla chutney)that’s why there is a Bengali nursury(Chhora) poem,
‘Chhee chhee Rani Randhte shekhenee,
Mashima key Boley Jholey Moshla deboki?
Shuktanitey jhaal diyechhey,
Amboletey ghee!
Poromanno rendhey boley,
Phan phelbo ki?’
dear poppy, nice to let me know bout the red chilis. i took this recipe from the hare krishna book of vegetarian cooking. don’t know much about bengali cooking except for panch phoran, begun bhaja and rasagullas
i do not understand a word about the bengali poem. it would be nice if you could translate it.