Subz Panchmel belongs to the Lands of Royals, the Rajasthan. It feels like someone telling me पधारो माहरे देश – Welcome to Rajasthan. It is a typical Rajasthani special veg curry made using five different vegetables.
If you observe closely, the word subz panchmel comes from the native language. Now that we are talking about the native language, this recipe has two more names. First, Subz Panchratan and second is Subz Panchavati.
The word pancmael, panchratan & panchavati means five. It’s terminology. It means your subz panchmel must contain vegetables no less than five. You can add a couple of veggies, which can still be panchmael. It is essential to realise that the vegetable count must not be less than five.
There’s a significant connection between this royal Rajasthani dish & the one from Gujarat. Let me tell you how. The panchmael has five veggies in it with ground spices & masala powders.
There’s one more dish called Surti Papdi Undhiyu, which has the same concept. Although there are more than five vegetables in the surti papdi undhiyu, it resembles our current recipe.
In a way, the mix veg surti undhiyu is a traditional blend of vegetables, spices & masala powders. I mean a decent mixture with taste, texture & vivid aroma. Okay, let’s understand our traditional Rajasthani dish first.
This recipe will end up giving you a variety of tastes. For instance, a smooth taste because of cashews and muskmelon seeds. Then you will get a robust spicy taste from ginger, garlic, onion, green chilli, asafoetida and garam masala.
Further, you have fresh vegetables. These veggies integrate their aroma and flavour into the recipe. All in all, the taste of subz panchmel is mildly spicy.
The texture is similar to the aloo curry or paneer gravy recipe. My point is a bright texture. Since we will not add red chilli powder, the colour of the final dish will remain bright. Although we have garam masala powder, the colour won’t change or darken.
The traditional style of cooking subz panchmel requires five vegetables. However, if you want to add a couple of vegetables, you can do that. For instance, I have used seven vegetables. They are baby corn, potato, carrot, sweet corn, french beans and cauliflower.
You can either add them all or eliminate two vegetables of your choice.
To sprinkle garam masala at the end is a classic trick by chefs. Our subz panchmel is mild in spices. If you look at the ingredient list, you won’t find whole spices except cumin seeds. On the other hand, referring to the same list, you will not find powdered masala except for two of them.
In that case, the sabji will taste too mild, like eating boiled vegetables. Hence, to eliminate this issue, we will sprinkle garam masala on the top when it is ready. Of course, you can add garam masala while sauteeing, but you will get a dark colour. Additionally, you can also increase or decrease the quantity as per taste.
There are some pre-preparations. Let’s take a look at what they are. Read below.