Category Archives: Recipes

Tibetan Recipes and Comfort Food

Over the years we’ve published Tibetan recipes for typical dishes that the nuns eat. Now we’ve gathered all the recipes in one place for you. Our deepest thanks to Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Tibetan Culture for sharing some of their recipes and photos with us. They have many more wonderful Tibetan recipes on their website at www.yowangdu.com

Here are 5 recipes in one blog post:
Tibetan Momos
Tibetan Noodle Soup: Thenthuk
Tibetan Hot Sauce, Sepen
Dal Bhat 
Vegetarian Guthuk Soup for Tibetan New Year
Recipes for Tibetan food

Recipe for Tibetan Momos

For 2 people (Makes about 25 momos)
This is a vegetarian recipe for Tibetan momos or 
tsel momos in Tibetan. The nuns make momos for special occasions such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday. This recipe from YoWangdu Tibetan Culture uses tofu, bok choy, and shiitake mushrooms to make momos that are light and delicious. If you don’t have time to make your own wrappers, you can buy dumpling, wonton, potsticker, or gyoza wrappers in many grocery stores. These will taste a bit different than the kind Tibetans make, but they will work.

Recipe for Tibetan momos

Tibetan momos. Photo courtesy of YoWangdu.

Dough Ingredients

2 cups white all-purpose flour
3/4 cup water

Filling Ingredients for Vegetarian Momos

1/2 large onion (we use red onion)
1 and 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1 cup baby bok choy (about 2 clusters) or cabbage
5 ounces super-firm tofu
2 stalks green onion
6 largish shiitake mushrooms (you can substitute white mushrooms)
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon vegetable bouillon
1/4 cup of cooking oil such as Canola

Prepare the Dough

  1. Mix the flour and water very well by hand; knead for about 5 minutes or until you make a smooth, flexible ball of dough.
  2. Leave your dough in a pot with the lid on or in a plastic bag while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Don’t let the dough dry out or it will be hard to work with.

Prepare the Filling for Vegetarian Momos

  1. Chop the onion, ginger, garlic, cilantro, bok choy, tofu, green onions, and mushrooms into very small pieces.
  2. Heat 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a pan to high and add chopped tofu. Cook on medium high for 2 minutes, until the edges are brown (cooking all water out).
  3. Add chopped mushroom and cook another 3-4 minutes. Cool completely (very important) and add to filling mix.

How to make Tibetan momos recipe copyMaking the Momo Dough Circles

  1. When both your dough and filling are ready, it is time for the tricky part of making the dumpling shapes. To do this, you might want to watch this video  to see how to make the two traditional shapes.
  2. Place the dough on a chopping board and use a rolling pin to roll it out thinly, about 1/8 inch thick. It should not be so thin that you can see through it when you pick it up.
  3. Cutting the dough into circles: Turn a small cup or glass upside down and cut out circles about the size of your palm. Pinch the edges of each circle to thin them.

Shaping a Half-Moon Momo

  1. Prepare (lightly grease) a non-stick surface and get a damp cloth or lid to keep the momos you’ve made from drying out while you finish the others.
  2. Hold a dough circle in your left hand, slightly cupping it. Put about a tablespoon of your veggie filling in the center of the dough. Start with a small amount; try to not overfill.
  3. Starting on one edge and moving to the other, pinch the two sides of the dough together, creating a curved crescent shape. The bottom side of the momo will stay relatively flat, whereas the pinched edge has folds to allow for the bulk of the filling.  Be sure to close all gaps so that you don’t lose juice while cooking.

Recipe for Tibetan momos vegetarian

Cook and Serve Your Momos!

  1. Boil water in a large steamer. (Tibetans often use a double-decker steamer to make many momos at one time.)
  2. Lightly oil the surface of the steamer.
  3. Once the water is boiling, place the momos a little distance apart in the steamer because they will expand a bit when they cook.
  4. Steam the momos for 10-12 minutes, with the water boiling continuously.
  5. Momos are done once the dough is cooked.
  6. Serve the momos right off the stove, with the dipping sauce of your choice. At home, we mix together soy sauce and Patak’s Lime Relish, which we get in Indian stores, or the Asian section of supermarkets. Tibetan hot sauce is also very good. See below for recipe!
  7. Be careful when you take the first bite of the hot momos since the juice is very, very hot, and can burn you easily. Enjoy!steamed Tibetan momos

 

Recipe for Thenthuk, Tibetan Noodle Soup

For 2 people
Here is a recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, called thenthuk (འཐེན་ཐུག་). This comfort food is a common noodle soup in Tibetan cuisine, especially in Amdo, Tibet. Traditionally it would be made with mutton or yak meat. Tibetan noodle soups are generally calledthukpa. Thenthuk (pronounced ten-took) is one kind of thukpa. It is easy and fun to make your own noodles.

Recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, Tibetan recipes, Tibetan soup, thenthuk,

Traditionally, thenthuk is made with meat, but the nuns follow a vegetarian diet. Thenthuk is one kind of Tibetan noodle soup and its name means “pull-noodle” soup.

Dough Ingredients

1 heaping cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water, room temperature
1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp oil

Soup Ingredients

2 or 3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, finely minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped into thin strips
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
4 to 5 cups vegetable or other stock
2 green/spring onions, chopped
cilantro, a few sprigs, roughly chopped
handful of spinach
soy sauce or salt to taste

Recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, Tibetan recipes, Tibetan soup, thenthuk, ingredients for Tibetan noodle soup

Ingredients for Tibetan noodle soup, thenthuk.

Dough Instructions

  1. Dough: In a bowl, combine the dough ingredients, mix well and then knead for 4 minutes.
  2. Cover and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
  3. Roll or flatten out the dough and cut into long strips and then make the broth.

Soup Instructions

  1. In a large pot on medium heat, sauté garlic, ginger, and onion in oil for 1 minute.
  2. Add carrots and tomato and gently sauté for one minute.
  3. Add most of the stock and bring to a boil. Adjust the amount of stock later depending on the soup to noodle ratio you prefer.
  4. Put the noodle in the soup by draping the strips over your hand and tearing off pieces of about an inch in size, throwing them into the boiling soup.
  5. Cook for 2 minutes until the noodles are cooked and the stock is boiling.
  6. Add the chopped green onions, cilantro, and spinach and cook for about 30 seconds.
  7. Season with soy sauce or salt. Serve immediately.

Recipe for Tibetan Hot Sauce

Tibetan hot sauce, called sepen in Tibetan, is a popular accompaniment to Tibetan momos and other dishes. While the nuns hand chop all their ingredients, you can make this recipe with a food processor or blender. Add this spicy sauce to anything you like, but be careful, this sepen is extremely hot! You can adjust the heat of the sauce by reducing the amount of red pepper.

recipe for Tibetan hot sauce, sepen

Our thanks to Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Experience Tibet (www.yowangdu.com) for sharing their recipe for Tibetan Hot Sauce or tsepen.

Ingredients for Tibetan Hot Sauce

1 medium onion
2 medium tomatoes (Roma tomatoes work well)
2 tablespoons cilantro
chopped 2 stalks of green onion
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup dried red peppers (see the note below)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil for cooking

NOTE: You can adjust the spiciness of this recipe by using less red pepper and/or more of the other ingredients.

Instructions

  1. Roughly chop the celery, tomatoes, green onion, and cilantro.
  2. Peel and roughly chop garlic.
  3. Peel and cut onion in half lengthwise, then slice fairly thin.
  4. Slice tomato in thinnish circles.
  5. Heat oil in pan on high.
  6. On high heat, cook garlic a few seconds, then add onion slices and stir fry about 1 minute.
  7. Add celery and whole red peppers, stir fry another minute.
  8. Add tomato slices, and stir fry for a minute or so.
  9. Stir in cilantro, chopped spring onion, and salt.
  10. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes.

At this point, everything should be cooked down a bit. Put everything in a blender or food processor until you have a sauce. Stop at the thickness you like.

Recipe for Dal Bhat

Serves 2 people
Traditionally Tibetans in Tibet don’t cook dal, but it is a very common dish among Tibetans in exile, especially those in India and Nepal. Dal bhat is a traditional Nepali or Indian food consisting of lentil soup (dal) served with rice (bhat). Here’s a recipe from Yowangdu Tibetan Culture for how to cook Tibetan-style dal (or dal bhat). This recipe has been slightly edited for length.

Ingredients

1 cup red lentils (masoor dal) (other types of dal can take much longer to cook)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small red onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon turmeric*
½ teaspoon cumin seeds*
½ teaspoon coriander powder*
1 medium tomato, diced
½ tablespoon butter or ghee (optional, but it gives a nice flavor)
2 tablespoons cilantro and/or green onion, chopped, for garnish
water, to make soup
basmati rice (or any kind you wish)
Indian chutney or pickle (achar) of your choice. Patak’s lime pickle and other pickles can be found at many large grocery stores.
Optional: add pepper of your choice, or red pepper flakes.

*If you prefer, you can use Shan Dal Curry Mix or garam masala instead of the turmeric, cumin and coriander.

Instructions

  1. Wash the lentils and rinse a couple of times. Be careful to remove any stones. If you have time, soak the lentils in water as long as you can, up to overnight, before you cook. They get very soft and can cook faster.
  2. Begin preparing the rice any way you like so it will be ready when you’re done cooking the dal.
  3. Chop your onion, and mince the garlic and ginger and set aside.
  4. Chop the tomato and set aside.
  5. Wash your cilantro and or green onion. Chop for garnish and set aside.
  6. Heat oil on high for a minute or two.
  7. Add ginger, garlic and onion, and stir fry on high until the onion is a little brown on the edges, 1-2 minutes.
  8. Stir in cumin seeds, salt, turmeric, mustard seed and coriander powder. Turn the heat down to medium (6 out of 10 on our stove), and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Keep the stove at medium (6/10) for the rest of the cooking process and stir occasionally.
  9. Add tomatoes and butter. Stir, cover with lid and cook for 4 minutes.
  10. After 4 minutes, stir in the lentils, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
  11. After cooking for 5 minutes, add one cup of water, cover with lid and cook for 5 more minutes.
  12. When the 5 minutes are up, stir in 2 more cups of water, as the water will begin to decrease as you cook.
  13. Continue cooking on medium for 10 minutes.
  14. Now your dal is ready. Turn off the stove and sprinkle the chopped cilantro and/or green onion on top.
  15. Serve with rice.

NOTE: Many Tibetans like to serve the dal in a small soup bowl, beside a plate of rice. Some people like to ladle the dal over the rice and mix it up to eat. Indians and Nepalis often eat dal baht with their hands, as do some Tibetans, but many of us also use a spoon.

Add some Indian chutney or pickle (achar) or hot sauce such as Patak’s Lime Pickle or relish, which is goes very well with this dal bhat.

Recipe for Tibetan Guthuk

Serves 2 or 3 people depending on your appetite.
Double or triple this for a guthuk party.
This is a recipe for Losar or Tibetan New Year. Guthuk is a special soup is eaten on the night of the 29th day of the 12th month, or the eve of Losar. Guthuk is the only Tibetan food that is eaten only once a year as part of a ritual of dispelling any negativities of the old year and to make way for an auspicious new one. 

Tibetan guthuk soup

Vegetarian guthuk soup. Photo and recipe courtesy of YoWangdu.com

Guthuk gets its name from the Tibetan word gu meaning nine and thuk which refers generally to noodle soups, so guthuk is the soup eaten on the 29th day. The gu part of the name also comes from the fact that the soup traditionally has at least nine ingredients. In this vegetarian version of guthuk, the nine main ingredients are mushrooms, celery, labu (daikon radish), peas, tomato, onion, ginger, garlic, and spinach. A traditional guthuk would include meat (yak or beef) and dried cheese.

This guthuk recipe from YoWangdu is a fusion of traditional and contemporary Tibetan cooking. It has a traditional Tibetan noodle soup called thukpa bhatuk as its base, but is vegetarian and includes celery and mushrooms for a flavorful vegetarian broth.

What makes the soup extra special is that each person eating the soup receives one large dough ball with a hidden surprise inside it. Tucked inside the dough ball is a item or symbol of that item which is meant to be a playful commentary on the character of the person who gets it.

Guthuk dough ball with the Tibetan word for salt inside it.

Guthuk dough ball with the Tibetan word for salt inside it. Photo © YoWangdu

In the dough ball above, for example, is a slip of paper with the Tibetan word for salt (tsal). This is supposed to symbolize a lazy person. Traditionally, there would be an actual piece of rock salt inside the dough ball. In any case you don’t want to draw the dough ball with salt!

The objects or words placed into each large dough ball are jokingly meant to refer to the character of the person who gets it. Here’s a list of four positive and six negative objects and their Tibetan words and symbols:

Wool (bay) means you’re kind hearted
A thread rolled inwards (kuba nandrim) symbolizes a person who draws luck and money
Sun (nyima) means the goodness related to light
Moon (dawa) also means the goodness related to light
Chili (sepen) means a sharp tongue
Salt (tsa) means you’re lazy
Glass (karyul) symbolizes someone who is happy when there’s fun, but disappears when there is work to do
Coal (sola) means you’re black hearted
A thread rolled outward (kuba chidrim) represents someone who spends or dissipates luck or money
A small prickly ball (semarango) symbolizes a prickly person

A nice Tibetan custom is that, if any family member is absent, he or she still gets a bowl of guthuk served up, with the extra dough ball, and someone will call them to tell them what object they got.

Guthuk ingredients from YoWangdu

Vegetarian Losar Guthuk Ingredients. Photo © YoWangdu.

Dough Ingredients for Guthuk

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

Soup Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
1/3 medium onion
5 medium shiitake mushrooms
1 tomato, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce (if using regular soy sauce, leave out the salt)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups water (first cooking) + 3 cups of water (second cooking)
1/3 cup raw sugar snap peas, without shells
2/3 of a large labu, cut into strips, see instructions below. (labu = daikon = Japanese radish)
5 cups spinach (measure before chopping), roughly chopped. (As long as they are clean, no need to remove the stems.)
1 stalk green onion, chopped
1 cup cilantro, chopped

Instructions for Guthuk

  1. Prepare the soup Ingredients. First mince the garlic and ginger.
  2. Chop the onion.
  3. Roughly chop the celery, mushrooms, and tomato.
  4. Prepare the labu (daikon radish) by peeling it with a potato peeler, removing the two ends, and chopping it into thin, narrow strips about as long as your finger. Soak the chopped labu in water with about 1 tsp of salt; swish around and leave for several minutes before draining and rinsing well several times to remove the saltiness and bitterness. Tibetans say that rinsing like this gets rid of the strong radish smell.
  5. Chop the garnishes.
  6. Finely chop the cilantro.
  7. Chop the green onion.
  8. Roughly chop the spinach (or don’t chop if you like large pieces)
  9. Set all these aside until the soup is almost done.
  10. Prepare the dough by slowly adding the water to the flour.
  11. Mix the flour and water to form a ball and then knead for a couple of minutes. The dough will be a bit dryish and stiff. If you can’t form a ball, you can a little more water. If dough is sticky, add a tiny bit more flour. This dough does not have to rest after kneading so you can prepare it any time during the cooking process.
  12. Shape the dough. From this dough, you will make two different types of things – first are the  bhatsa, which are the normal little gnocchi-like scoops of noodle in an everyday thukpa bhathuk, and second are the large round dough balls (one for each person eating the soup) that contain hidden items or messages which is what makes this soup a guthuk.
making the dough rope for guthuk YoWangdu

Making the dough rope for the bhatsa in guthuk. Photo © YoWangdu

Making the Normal Bhatsa Noodles

dough for guthuk noodle soup YoWangdu

Pinching off dough and pressing the bhatsa for guthuk. Photo © YoWangdu.

  1. First, rub the ball of dough between your hands to make it into a thick tube of dough, and then pinch off pieces of that tube to make 4-5 chunks of dough.
  2. Then rub each piece of dough between your hands to form long, thin ropes of dough.
  3. Pinch off a piece as big as the end of your fingernail, or smaller.
  4. Rub the dough with one finger in the palm of your hand to cause the little piece of dough to curl up (the better to scoop up the juices in the soup). These little scooped pieces of dough are your bhatsa.
  5. Repeat until you’ve used up all but 1 of your ropes of dough.
  6. You can sprinkle a little flour around the pile of bhatsa, to keep them from sticking together.

Making the Special Dough Balls with the Hidden Items or Messages

  1. Pinch off a piece of dough 4-5 times as big as one of the normal bhatsa. Basically, the dough balls need to be easily distinguishable in the soup, so that we can pick out our dough ball from among the bhatsa.
  2. Roll it roughly into a circle between your hands, but before you finish rolling it, fold one of the pieces of papers with the special messages, and stuff it into the center of the dough ball, then re-roll it to make the ball as smooth as you can. It’s best if there are no cracks so that paper stays dry inside the dough ball when we cook it. Of course if you wish, you can add the actual items, like some salt, or coal, inside the dough ball. But these days most people outside Tibet just put a paper with a word or symbol written on it to signify the item.
  3. Make one dough ball for each person eating your guthuk.

Cook the Soup

  1. Lightly brown the ginger, garlic and onion on medium high, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add celery, mushrooms, tomato, soy sauce and salt and cook on high for about 7 minutes.
  3. Add 3 cups of water, keeping heat on high, and bring to a boil.
  4. When the broth starts to boil, turn down to low and simmer for 10 minutes
  5. After the broth has simmered for 10 minutes, add 3 more cups of water, turn heat on high and bring broth to a boil.
  6. After the broth begins to boil, add the prepared labu and green peas. Heat remains on high.
  7. After 5 minutes, add the bhatsa and the large guthuk dough balls with the special messages inside them. Heat remains on high.
  8. When cooked the bhatsa noodles and the large dough balls will pop up to the surface of the soup. This will take about 5 minutes. When most of them are popped up to the surface, turn off the heat but leave on the burner.
  9. Stir in spinach, cilantro, and green onion and serve right away. (These final ingredients do not really need to cook, and look nicer if they are fresh looking.)
  10. Put one big dough ball in each bowl of soup.
  11. Serve right away – it is best to eat hot!
  12. After you have enjoyed the soup for a while, each person can fish out his or her dough ball and dig out the message inside for some fun!

It is traditional that everyone saves a bit of their soup and then dumps it into a communal dish with a little dough effigy. Place a candle in the dish and carry whole thing out of the house being careful not to look back at the house. Take it to the nearest intersection so that the bad spirits now attached to it will get confused and not return to the home.

Recipe for Tibetan Noodle Soup, Thenthuk

Here is a recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, called thenthuk (འཐེན་ཐུག་). This comfort food is a common noodle soup in Tibetan cuisine, especially in Amdo, Tibet. Traditionally it would be made with mutton or yak meat. Links to four other recipes, including vegetarian momos, are at the bottom of this post.

Recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, Tibetan recipes, Tibetan soup, thenthuk,

Traditionally, thenthuk would be made with meat, but the nuns in India eat a vegetarian diet. This is a meat-optional recipe. Thenthuk is one particular kind of Tibetan noodle soup. It’s name means pull-noodle soup.

Tibetan noodle soups are generally called thukpa. Thenthuk (pronounced ten-took) is one kind of thukpa. It is easy and fun to make your own noodles.

You can download a PDF of the recipe here. At the end of the blog, there are links to other recipes for Tibetan food, including vegetarian momos.

Ingredients for Thenthuk

Serves 2

Noodle Dough

1 heaping cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water, room temperature
1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp oil

Broth

2 or 3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, finely minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped into thin strips
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
4 to 5 cups vegetable or other stock
2 green/spring onions, chopped
cilantro, a few sprigs, roughly chopped
handful of spinach
soy sauce or salt to taste

Recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, Tibetan recipes, Tibetan soup, thenthuk, ingredients for Tibetan noodle soup

Ingredients for Tibetan noodle soup, thenthuk.

Noodle Instructions

In a bowl, combine the dough ingredients, mix well and then knead for 4 minutes. Cover and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Roll or flatten out the dough and cut into long strips and then make the broth.

Soup Instructions

In a large pot on medium heat, sauté garlic, ginger, and onion in oil for 1 minute. Add carrots and tomato and gently sauté for one minute. Add most of the stock and bring to a boil. Adjust the amount of stock later depending on the soup to noodle ratio you prefer.

Put the noodle in the soup by draping the strips over your hand and tearing off pieces of about an inch in size, throwing them into the boiling soup. Cook for 2 minutes until the noodles are cooked and the stock is boiling. Add the chopped green onions, cilantro, and spinach and cook for about 30 seconds. Season with soy sauce or salt. Serve immediately.

Other Tibetan Recipes

We have four other Tibetan recipes on our blog:
Recipe for vegetarian momos
Recipe for Tibetan hot sauce
Recipe for Tibetan noodle soup, gyuthuk
Recipe for dal (Not a Tibetan dish, but one that is eaten often by monks and nuns in India)

Recipe for Tibetan Hot Sauce

Tibetan hot sauce, called sepen in Tibetan, is a popular accompaniment to Tibetan momos and other dishes.

recipe for Tibetan hot sauce, sepen

Our thanks to Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Experience Tibet (www.yowangdu.com) for sharing their recipe for Tibetan Hot Sauce or tsepen.

While the nuns hand chop all their ingredients, this recipe can be made with a food processor or blender. Add this spicy sauce to anything you like, but be careful, this sepen is extremely hot! You can adjust the heat of the sauce by reducing the amount of red pepper.

Ingredients for Tibetan Hot Sauce

  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 medium tomatoes (Roma tomatoes work well)
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro
  • chopped 2 stalks of green onion
  • 2 stalks of celery
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup dried red peppers (see the note below)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil for cooking

NOTE: You can adjust the spiciness of this recipe by using less red pepper and/or more of the other ingredients.

Preparation of the Hot Sauce

  • Roughly chop the celery, tomatoes, green onion, and cilantro.
  • Peel and roughly chop garlic.
  • Peel and cut onion in half lengthwise, then slice fairly thin.
  • Slice tomato in thinnish circles.
  • Heat oil in pan on high.
  • On high heat, cook garlic a few seconds, then add onion slices and stir fry about 1 minute.
  • Add celery and whole red peppers, stir fry another minute.
  • Add tomato slices, and stir fry for a minute or so.
  • Stir in cilantro, spring onion, and salt.
  • Cover and cook for about 3 minutes.
  • At this point, everything should be cooked down a bit. Put everything in a blender or food processor until you have a sauce. Stop at the thickness you like.
Buddhist nuns, Tibetan hot sauce, recipe for Tibetan hot sauce, Tibetan food

Buddhist nuns at Dolma Ling chop ingredients for Tibetan hot sauce. The nunnery is home to about 230 nuns. Photo courtesy of Dustin Kujawski

Thanks to Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Experience Tibet, we have a number of other Tibetan recipes to share with you including:

Tibetan hot sauce, Tibetan food, Dolma Ling Nunnery, sepen

When you make vegetarian food for 230 nuns there’s a lot of chopping involved. Here the nuns have chopped ingredients for their Tibetan hot sauce, using green chilies instead of red. Photo courtesy of Dustin Kujawski

Food for Thought: What Buddhist Nuns Eat

It’s just past 3 a.m. and the nuns on kitchen duty at Dolma Ling Nunnery in northern India are already hard at work boiling water and heating up griddles to prepare breakfast for about 280 nuns and staff.

In the shelter of the cowshed, the nunnery’s small herd of dairy cows are still asleep. The nuns will milk them around 6:30 a.m. and carry their sweet, fresh milk in pails to the kitchen, where it will be used to make both traditional Tibetan butter tea and Indian-style sweet tea.

In this blog post we’d like to take you behind the scenes at some of the seven nunneries in northern India supported through the Tibetan Nuns Project. We offer profound thanks to our sponsors of nuns whose generosity feeds over 700 nuns every day.

Chopping vegetables for about 280 people is a big job at Dolma Ling. The nuns take turns on kitchen duty. This photo and the above kitchen photo are courtesy of Brian Harris.

For 2,500 years, since the time of the Buddha, nuns and monks have relied on the generous support of the lay community for their daily food. The practice of generosity (dana) is the first of the perfections or paramitas in both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. Offering food to monastics is a meritorious act. As Milarepa, the great Tibetan yogi and poet, said, “The practitioner and benefactor offering food create the cause to achieve enlightenment together.”

It’s long before dawn when the nuns assemble in the kitchen to start preparing breakfast. Meals are prepared collectively in the nunnery kitchens. Photo courtesy of Brian Harris.

In countries like Thailand, where Theravada Buddhism is practiced, monks and nuns go on daily alms rounds, carrying their alms bowls and accepting offerings of food from the local community. Continue reading

Nuns making Tibetan momos with video

If you ask someone to name their favorite Tibetan food there’s a good chance they’ll say Tibetan momos. Momos are steamed savoury dumplings that are much loved by Tibetans around the world and that are often made on traditional holidays.

vegetarian Tibetan momos

Photo of vegetarian Tibetan momos and chili sauce courtesy of YoWangdu Tibetan Culture.

Momos are a bit of a delicacy because of the work involved in making them. They can be stuffed with a variety of fillings such as beef, yak meat, cheese, potatoes or vegetables.

The nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute near Dharamsala in northern India (one of the seven nunneries in India supported by the Tibetan Nuns Project) follow a vegetarian diet and make momos on special occasions such as Tibetan New Year and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday.

Here’s a lovely video that the nuns made in 2012 ago showing them preparing momos to celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday on July 6th. As you will see from the video, it’s no small task to make enough momos to serve over 230 nuns!

If you’d like to make momos at home, here a recipe for vegetarian momos and one for meat momos, both kindly shared by YoWangdu Tibetan Culture.

Tibetan New Year Cookies or Khapse

A special part of any Tibetan New Year or Losar celebration is the eating of khapse, deep fried Tibetan cookies. This blog post will give you a glimpse of Dolma Ling Nunnery in India and the some of the preparations by the nuns for Losar. In the days leading up to Losar, the Tibetan nuns, like Tibetan lay people all over the world, will be working hard to prepare large batches of these crispy cookies.

making Tibetan khapse

Tibetan Buddhist nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery in northern India making khapse for Tibetan New Year. Photo from the Tibetan Nuns Project 2014.

Khapse (or khapsay) means literally “mouth-eat” and they are a staple of Tibetan New Year’s celebrations everywhere. While these biscuits are made for other celebrations as well, such as weddings and religious events such as the enthronement of a lama, it’s at Tibetan New Year that they are ubiquitous.

nuns making Tibetan khapse

Nuns at Dolma Ling Nunnery making khapse for Tibetan New Year 2014

The dough for the khapse is usually made with flour, eggs, butter and sugar. It is then rolled out and made into different shapes and sizes. The most common shape is the small twisted rectangular pieces which are served to guests.

Tibetan khapse made by nuns

Tibetan khapse ready for frying. This shape is made by cutting the dough into a narrow rectangle and then making a slit in the middle. Then one side of the khapse is pulled through.

Larger and more elaborate shapes are made as well, including the so-called Donkey Ears or bhungue amcho (also known as khugo). These are large elongated hollow tubes of crispy pastry that are stacked up on the Losar altar as both a food offering and as a decoration. Strings of dried Tibetan cheese are draped over the top.

Losar khapse

Stacks of a special type of khapse made by the nuns decorate the Losar altar at Dolma Ling Nunnery in northern India. Photo from the Tibetan Nuns Project 2014.

Traditionally, khapse would be deep fried in butter or mustard oil, but in exile the nuns use corn oil. The deep frying give the cookies their distinctive light brown or yellow color.

frying khapse for Tibetan New Year

Inside the nunnery kitchen at Dolma Ling, the nuns fry large batches of khapse in big vats of hot oil.

You can make khapse at home. For a recipe for Tibetan khapse, visit our friends at YoWangdu Tibetan Culture. Happy Losar!

 

Vegetarian guthuk soup: A recipe for Tibetan New Year

To celebrate Losar or Tibetan New Year, we want to share with you a vegetarian recipe for the very popular Tibetan noodle soup, called guthuk. This special soup is eaten on the night of the 29th day of the 12th month, or the eve of Losar.

We’d like to thank our friends, Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Experience Tibet (www.yowangdu.com) for sharing this recipe with us. They have many wonderful Tibetan recipes on their website.

Guthuk is the only Tibetan food that is eaten only once a year as part of a ritual of dispelling any negativities of the old year and to make way for an auspicious new one. The base of the soup is actually a common noodle soup called thukpa bhatuk, but at the end of the year, this daily favorite is transformed into a special dish that is also a bit of a game.

Tibetan guthuk soup

Vegetarian guthuk soup. Photo and recipe courtesy of YoWangdu.com

Guthuk gets its name from the Tibetan word gu meaning nine and thuk which refers generally to noodle soups, so guthuk is the soup eaten on the 29th day. The gu part of the name also comes from the fact that the soup traditionally has at least nine ingredients. In this vegetarian version of guthuk, the nine main ingredients are mushrooms, celery, labu (daikon radish), peas, tomato, onion, ginger, garlic, and spinach. A traditional guthuk would include meat (yak or beef) and dried cheese. Continue reading

Vegetarian Momo Recipe

Tsel Momo or Vegetarian Momos: Steamed Vegetable Dumplings
Our profound thanks to Lobsang and Yolanda at YoWangdu Tibetan Culture for their support of the nuns and for sharing both this recipe and their beautiful photos. The recipe has been edited here for length. If you want to see more of their Tibetan recipes, including meat momos, visit their website at www.yowangdu.com

Tibetan momos or dumplingsTraditionally in Central Tibet, there were sha (meat) momos and eventually vegetable fillings began to appear as well. Typical vegetarian momos (tsel momos) are stuffed with a potato filling, but Lobsang at YoWangdu Tibetan Culture has created his own blend of tofu, bok choy and shiitake mushrooms to make momos that are light and delicious.

For 2 people (Makes about 25 momos)

Dough Ingredients

  • 2 cups white all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup water

If you don’t have time to make them yourself, look for dumpling wrappers, wonton, potsticker, gyoza or shu mai wrappers in many major grocery stores. These will taste a bit different than the kind we make, but they will work.

Filling Ingredients for Vegetarian Momos

  • 1/2 large onion (we use red onion)
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 cup minced cilantro
  • 1 cup baby bok choy (about 2 clusters) or cabbage
  • 5 ounces super firm tofu
  • 2 stalks green onion
  • 6 largish shiitake mushrooms (you can substitute white mushrooms)
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or to your taste
  • 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon vegetable bouillon
  • 1/4 cup of cooking oil (we use Canola)

Prepare the Dough

  • Mix the flour and water very well by hand; knead until you make a smooth, flexible ball of dough (About 5 minutes)
  • Leave your dough in a pot with the lid on, or in a plastic bag, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You should not let the dough dry out or it will be hard to work with.

ingredients for veggie momosPrepare the Filling for Vegetarian Momos

  • Chop the onion, ginger, garlic, cilantro, bok choy, tofu, green onions and mushrooms into very small pieces.
  • Heat 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a pan to high and add chopped tofu. Cook on medium high for 2 minutes, until the edges are brown (cooking all water out).
  • Add chopped mushroom and cook another 3-4 minutes. Cool completely (very important) and add to filling mix.

making Tibetan momosMaking the Momo Dough Circles

When your dough and filling are both ready, it is time for the tricky part of making the dumpling shapes.

  • Place the dough on a chopping board and use a rolling pin to roll it out thinly, about 1/8 inch thick. It should not be so thin that you can see through it when you pick it up.
  • Cutting the dough into circles: Turn a small cup or glass upside down and cut out circles about the size of your palm. Pinch the edges of each circle to thin them.

Shaping a Half-Moon Momo

(To do this, you might want to also watch this video showing how the two traditional shapes are made.)

  • Prepare a non-stick surface and a damp cloth or lid to keep the momos you’ve made from drying out while you’re finishing the others (lightly-greased trays of steamer with lid or wax paper and a damp cloth).
  • Hold a dough circle in your left hand, slightly cupping it. Put about a tablespoon of your veggie filling in the center of the dough. Start with a small amount, try to not overfill.
  • Starting on one edge and moving to the other, pinch the two sides of the dough together, creating a curved crescent shape. The bottom side of the momo will stay relatively flat, whereas the pinched edge has folds to allow for the bulk of the filling.  Be sure to close all gaps so that you don’t lose juice while cooking.

making Tibetan momos

Cook Your Momos!

  • Finally, you should boil water in a large steamer. (Tibetans often use a double-decker steamer, to make many momos at one time.)
  • Oil the steamer surface lightly.
  • Once the water is boiling, place the momos a little distance apart in the steamer as they will expand a little bit when they cook.
  • Steam the momos for 10-12 minutes, with the water boiling continuously.
  • Momos are done once the dough is cooked.

cooked Tibetan momosServing

  • Serve the momos right off the stove, with the dipping sauce of your choice. At home, we mix together soy sauce and Patak’s Lime Relish, which we get in Indian stores, or the Asian section of supermarkets. Tibetan hot sauce is also very good.
  • Be careful when you take the first bite of the hot momos since the juice is very, very hot, and can burn you easily.

Enjoy!

A taste of life at Dolma Ling Nunnery – with dal recipe

We wanted to give you a taste of life at the nunneries by sharing details of the nuns’ meals and also send you a delicious recipe for dal, Tibetan style, that you can try at home.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns making breakfast at Dolma Ling Nunnery. Tibetan Nuns Project

You have to get up VERY early to prepare breakfast for 230 nuns. Canadian photographer Brian Harris arrived in the kitchen of Dolma Ling Nunnery at about 3 am and found the nuns already at work making hundreds of parathas, an Indian dish of potato-filled fried bread. A typical breakfast for the nuns might be a piece of flatbread, cooked mixed vegetables, and tea.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns in kitchen at Dolma Ling Nunnery. Tibetan Nuns Project

All the food is vegetarian and is prepared by the nuns themselves. The head cook is always busy and the kitchen is spotless. The nuns rotate in and out of kitchen duties so everyone participates.

Lunch is the day’s main meal and is often rice, two kinds of vegetables, dal, and sometimes fruit. According to Brian, there’s also a knock-out nunnery hot sauce. Dinner is often a noodle soup and maybe a steamed bun.

A high-pitched gong sounds 3 times a day to announce meals. The senior nuns enter the dining hall first as the younger nuns, holding their bowls, cups and spoons, wait their turn. The dining hall also doubles as a place for the nuns to memorize the scriptures.

Tibetan Buddhist nuns chopping onions at Dolma Ling Nunnery - Brian Harris copy

Due to rapid inflation, rising food and fuel prices in India are putting a lot of pressure on all of the nunneries. In the last month, the price of onions has doubled. The price of cooking fuel – which was already expensive – has increased 5-fold in a year. The Tibetan Nuns Project is seeking more sponsors and supporters as we struggle to keep up with rising costs.

In July we launched a campaign to increase both donations and the number of sponsors. Thank you and welcome to our 34 new sponsors! To help with this campaign, with either a single gift or as a sponsor, please visit https://tnp.org.

Now here’s a recipe from our friends at Yowangdu Tibetan Culture for how to cook dal (or dal bhat) Tibetan style.

Dal bhat is a traditional Nepali or Indian food consisting of lentil soup (dal) served with rice (bhat), which Tibetans began to cook after coming into exile. Traditionally Tibetans in Tibet don’t cook dal, but it is a very common dish of Tibetans who live outside our country, especially those who live in India and Nepal.

Dal Bhat Recipe

Preparation time: 40 minutes (2 People)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup red lentils (masoor dal) (other types of dal can take much longer to cook)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • ingredients for dal1 small red onion, chopped small
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric*
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds*
  • ½ teaspoon coriander powder*
  • 1 medium tomato, diced
  • ½ tablespoon butter or ghee (optional, but it gives a nice flavor)
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro and/or green onion, chopped, for garnish
  • water, to make soup
  • basmati rice (or any kind you wish)
  • Indian chutney or pickle (achar) of your choice. We love Patak’s lime pickle. You can also find Patak’s at many other large grocery stores.
  • Optional: add pepper of your choice, or red pepper flakes.
  • If you prefer, you can use Shan Dal Curry Mix, or garam masala instead of the turmeric, cumin and coriander.

Preparation

  • Wash the lentils and rinse a couple of times. Be careful to remove any stones. If you have time, soak the lentils in water as long as you can, up to overnight, before you cook. They get very soft and can cook faster.
  • Begin preparing the rice any way you like so it will be ready when you’re done cooking the dal.
  • Chop your onion, and mince the garlic and ginger and set aside.
  • Chop the tomato and set aside.
  • Wash your cilantro and or green onion. Chop for garnish and set aside.
  • Heat oil on high for a minute or two.
  • Add ginger, garlic and onion, and stir fry on high until the onion is a little brown on the edges, 1-2 minutes.
  • Stir in cumin seeds, salt, turmeric, mustard seed and coriander powder. Turn the heat down to medium (6 out of 10 on our stove), and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often.
  • Note: The stove’s temperature will remain at medium (6/10) for the rest of the cooking process, and you will stir occasionally.
  • Add tomatoes and butter. Stir, cover with lid and cook for 4 minutes.
  • After 4 minutes, stir in the lentils, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
  • After cooking for 5 minutes, add one cup of water, cover with lid and cook for 5 more minutes.
  • When the 5 minutes are up, stir in 2 more cups of water, as the water will begin to decrease as you cook.
  • Continue cooking on medium for 10 minutes.
  • Now your dal is ready. Turn off the stove and sprinkle the chopped cilantro and/or green onion on top.

cooked dal Tibetan Nuns Project recipe

Serve

Serve with rice. Many Tibetans like to serve the dal in a small soup bowl, beside a plate of rice. Some people like to ladle the dal over the rice and mix it up to eat. Indians and Nepalis often eat dal baht with their hands, as do some Tibetans, but many of us also use a spoon.

Add some Indian chutney or pickle (achar) or hot sauce. We can’t more highly recommend the Patak’s Lime Pickle or relish, which is just heavenly and is perfectly complementary with this dal bhat. You can get it medium or hot. Medium is more spicy in a flavorful way than a hot way The hot has some bite!

(This recipe has been slightly edited for length. To see the full recipe and photos, as well as recipes for other Tibetan dishes such as momos and thukpa, visit Yowangdu Tibetan Culture’s website.)

Enjoy!

The Tibetan Nuns Project could not do what it does without the generous support of a caring community. Thank you again for your support.

To learn how you can help nourish the nuns bodies and minds with a single gift or as a sponsor, please visit https://tnp.org.