Tibetan Veg Thukpa

Whenever I travel, I make it a point to mostly eat the traditional recipe of that region. I do not like ordering the usual dishes which I can eat in my hometown when travelling. When I visited Sikkim and Ladakh, we ate a lot of Momos and Thukpas everywhere. One taste that lingered is that of Thukpa….this dish comes close to Maggi cooked with vegetables.

Hubby and me had an adventure when we visited Pangong Tso lake - We had planned to stay on the banks of the lake however the weather did not permit the stay and hence we had to return back. It was impossible to have reached Leh that night and hence we had to look for accommodation for night stay. All the rooms were booked in a small town of Tangtse and we were forced to stay with a family in a home-stay. Here I saw the lady of the house cook this dish and liked this wholesome meal.


Here is my version of Tibetan Veg Thukpa – this serves two people

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan
2. Add 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
3. Add 1 inch of ginger chopped into juliennes
4. Add 4-5 spring onion whites (that is only the onion part) and saute
5. Add 1 potato diced into cubes. Add 1 tomato finely chopped and saute
6. Add 1 dollop of butter (yak butter is used in Ladakh but we can add Amul butter :) )
7. After 5 mins, add 1 tsp garam masala, a pinch of haldi, 1 tsp red chilli powder and salt. Cook for 2 mins
8. Add 2 cups of noodles (I mostly cook with maggi without the seasoning that comes with it)
9. Add veg stock or water according to your taste. I like this like a soup and hence add more water
10. Cover and cook till noodles are almost done
11. Add 1 tsp soya sauce, a bunch of Palak roughly chopped and handful of spring onion greens roughly chopped and cook for 2 mins
12. Add freshly ground pepper and adjust salt if needed.

Hubby and me like to eat this soupy dish when we return from office all hungry and yet want to retain our appetites and hence I make it in small quantities. I particularly like this dish because of the palak in it. The palak gives the dish a very different flavor than normal veg maggi.