The Bengali New Year or Noboborsho(নববষর্) is celebrated on April 14 each year. As we near the Bengali New Year eve, many many Bengalis around the world will be planning and preparing a delicious feast to share with family and friends. To help make your New Year’s Day brighter and more delicious, here I am with this wonderful roundup of traditional Bengali dishes. I hope you enjoy the delicious special meals on Noboborsho. If you don’t find a Pohela Boishakh recipe you are looking for, make sure to look at all the other traditional Bengali recipes here. You will also find authentic, traditional dessert inspiration for the Bengali New Year by clicking here.
Wishing all my Bengali and non-Bengali friends advanced Shuvo Nobo Borsho (Happy Bengali New Year).
Traditionally, panta, leftover rice soaked in water and Ilish bhaaja a.k.a fried Hilsha with different kinds of bhorta is the food of choice to mark the Noboborsho festivities in Bangladesh. A hint of salt, lime and chili and most Bengalis will start salivating over this rice.
Panta Bhaat, Ilish bhaaja
Assortments of Bangladeshi Bhorta
Bhortas, the ultimate comfort food of Bangladesh is a must with panta bhaat. Bhortas are delicious, smooth, fiery and flavorful mashed goodies made with variety of vegetables, dried fish mixed with mustard oil, onion, garlic and red chili. Aloo(potato) bhorta and shutki(dried fish) bhorta is a must to accompany Nobo Borsho meal. Dal bhorta, eggplant bhorta along with broccoli, zucchini, etc. are great options too. The more bhortas there is, the merrier the meal is.
Bangladeshi Bhorta
Another gem to try with pants is beef rezala. It is best to reduce the gravy amount a bit from the rezala to pair with panta.
Meat Rezala
A quintessential Bengali Fish head curry.
Photo Source : Rimli, Scratching Canvas
No Bengali celebration is complete without an exquisite fish fare. The beauty of this whole fish is that you can cook it entirely on the stovetop or on the oven. If you are in a time crunch and need to attend to other tasks around the house, just cook the fish in the oven, else on the stovetop. Common but simple Bengali spices that are used to cook everyday fish, infuse this whole Tilapia.
Both versions are tried, tested and tastes delicious.
Whole Tilapia Two ways
A dish made of Chana Dal koftas or yellow split pea cakes soaked in delicious Bengali style curry. A master piece of Bengali Cuisine.
Photo Source : Anshu, My Mom’s Recipes
These sinful deep-fried unleavened breads are most commonly served at breakfast. A Bengali New Year Breakfast cannot be complete without these special puffed bread.
Source : Soma, eCurry
Now that poori is on the breakfast menu, alur dum is a must to accompany the puffed breads.
Photo Source : Chinmayie, Love Food Eat
Lobongo Lotika
Lobongo Lotika, a traditional Bengali stuffed sweet small parcel which is secured by a lobongo or cloves, and hugged by thick sugar syrup. Lobongo (clove) is the star ingredient here as it keeps the parcel in place.
Photo Source : Deepa, Hamaree Rasoi
The crescent shaped dumplings filled with coconut stuffing are steamed in cardamom and cinammon infused milk. The filling gives a fabulous texture to the soft rice skin with luscious milk sauce. Scrumptious!!
Dudh Puli Pitha
I hope all of you, my Bengali friends, take some time to celebrate the day no matter where you are. Wishing you all a happy preparation for Nobo Borsho.
P.S. Find more Bangladeshi recipes here. Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and/or Twitter to receive weekly new recipe updates.
you’ve written a mini cookbook here–love it!
Thank you, Liz. With the vast collection of Bengali recipes, It’s far from a book 🙂
I am full just reading your post. What a delicious feast. Thanks for the introduction to the dishes served during this tradition.
So glad you love the spread Bam. Thank you for stopping by.
Wow, such a nice round up…I wish I could taste them all Lail…
Have a beautiful weekend 😀
I wish you could too, Juliana. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week.
Shubho Noboborsho! Such temptation!!! Even though one set of my grandparents belonged to Bangladesh, Bhortas were not a very common thing in our family. other than aloo or maybe sheem and shrimp. How different the traditions are even within the same culture! Beautiful food!
Shubho Noboborsho, Soma. Bhorta is the ultimate comfort food in Bangladesh. If nothing else is there, some rice, dal and aloo bhorta can provide utter satisfaction. Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you have a wonderful year ahead.
Oh wow! These look so good – I feel like I just got the best mini education in food!
Glad you learned something about Bengali food, Sarah. Thank you for stopping by. Hope to see you around soon again.
Wow! What a feast indeed! I used to eat in Bengali restaurants a lot when I lived in East London but never got to try anything as delicious-looking as all this! I especially love the look of the dhoka dalna.
Happy new year!
Thank you, Helen. From what I know, most of the Bangladeshi restaurants in London really serve Indian inspired food. I tried two Bangladeshi restaurants(can’t recall the names) there, and they really were not authentic Bengali food. Glad to know you like Bengali food. Thank you.
It is weird, I haven’t been getting any of your emails, even though it says I have subscribed! Sorry I have been absent for a while :S
Lovely bengali feast definitely, my mouth is watering 😀
Thank you for sharing!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you for letting me know about the email issue Uru. I’m looking into it.
Glad you like the Bengali dishes. Thank you.
i am eyeing that whole fish tilapia and salivating over the sweet parcel! Thank you for such nice round up, I am inspired to try out some bengali cuisine for us, especially fish based dish as we enjoy them in restaurant. Hope it will turn out as nice as yours Lail.
I am glad you like them, Jehanne. Thank you. If you enjoy fish, you should definitely try the Tilapia. Thank you for stopping by.
What a delicious round up!
Happy new year!
Thank you, Angie.
Yummy!! I love Bengali food, just for all the delicious seafoods 😀
NYC 1…everything is perfect just like what I was planning….!! 🙂
Glad to hear, Anzila. Happy Bengali New Year!
Wow… this is so good. Panta Bhat and Fried Ilish… ahh, my favorite dish. Every Noborsho at the morning I will eating Panta Bhat and Fried Ilish with my friends and family.
Oh god, I can’t wait to east these Bengali foods.
I will surely try your recipe.. 😀
I will try these items for sure!
Hi I am a Bangladeshi this food are really delicious u all should try