Mizo cuisine - Vegetable dishes (Mizo chawhmeh)

Food item or cuisine is called Chawhmeh in Mizo language. Mizo people usually cooked their vegetarian foods without oil, that means most of their foods are eaten in boiling.  The ingredients can be vary according to the items. They have the vegetarian dish that are merely boiled with vegetables and water. This is might be regarded as healthy for consumption as it did not have any spices or oils.  Some vegetables are also cooked with fermented pig fat called saum, this is not considered as vegetarian dish as it contains animal fats. But some vegetables dishes are also cooked without saum. A mixture of different vegetables cooked together in same pot is simply called bai.  To cook a bai, the most important ingredients are saum, chingal (lye made from ashes) or soda (Sodium bicarbonate), bekangro (dried fermented soyabeans), chi (salt), lengser, bahkhawr, hmarcha (chilies), sawhthing (ginger)  and so on. The Mizo vegetables dishes are having its own special  taste, once you taste it you will surely like to have more. Some vegetables are also cooked with oil, its preparation can be vary and  is depended upon individual choice. 

These images are some vegetables dishes (Chawhmeh) of Mizo:

Antam chhum/Antam tlak (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - Boiled mustard leaves. Mustard leaves are boiled with water, no other ingredients needed to add.

Thingthupui chhum ((Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - These are the leaves collected from Thingthuphui trees, and boiled with water.  It have special taste.

Mizo bai ((Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - This is a mixture of vegetables cooked together. This is one the Mizo favourite dishes.

Behlawi bai (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It is cooked with beans leaves (behlawi hnah), rice, chingal and saum

Behlawi bai (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It is cooked with beans leaves (behlawi hnah) , rice, chingal and saum

Antam kan (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It is mustard leaves cooked with oil.

Maian bai (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It is pumpkin leaves boiled with water and other vegetables

Samtawk chhum (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It's boiled mock tomatoes

Berul chhum (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It's boiled snake gourd

Alu kan (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - It's fried potatoes

Mizo dishes are healthy and tasty. Its preparations are not so complicated and easy to learn within a short period. If you have a Mizo friend please try to get experience their foods. I hope that you will surely enjoy our Mizo cuisine.

Mautuai/Rawtuai (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh) - Bamboo shoots sell in Aizawl city roadside market

Chingit, bahkhawr, anthur, berul, hruizik, behlawi, samtawk, hmarchapui (Mizo cuisine/Mizo chawhmeh)

Mizo chawhmeh - The vegetables sells in Aizawl city roadside market