And have you got enough methi? All of these bizarre-sounding items are vegetables you can pick up at Tesco alongside your spuds and your carrots.
Dudhi
£3.40/kg, Tesco, or £1.30 each, Sainsbury’s
This marrow-like Indian vegetable is also known as a calabash or bottle gourd and has a delicate, nutty flavour reminiscent of sweet potatoes. It’s good sliced and added to stir fries, curries, or tossed into salads, while in India it is often grated and mixed with evaporated or condensed milk and spices to make a pudding called dudhi ka halwa.
Mooli
£1.29/kg, Tesco, Asda
This giant radish, grown throughout Asia and North America, has a peppery flavour rather like watercress and can be used grated raw into salads, stir-fried or made into soups. With a high water content, it is often carved and used to decorate foods, or added to Thai-style dishes.
Chow Chow
£1.99/kg, Tesco
A member of the gourd family originally from Mexico and now grown around the world, where it goes by several names, among them chayote, pipinola and vegetable pear. With a potato-like texture and a mild taste, it can be served raw (no need to peel it) in salads, stuffed, boiled, stewed or baked.
Eddoes
£1.99/kg, Tesco
These small, brown and hairy root veg are also known as malangas and originated in China and Japan but are grown worldwide. Don’t eat the skins, but apart from that, treat them as you would a potato (they taste similar): mashing, baking, roasting and turning them into chips all work well.
Methi
99p for a 150g bunch, Tesco
The leaves of the fenugreek tree, which in India are sold in bunches as a vegetable. (The seeds are what you buy as fenugreek). Grown from Spain to Afghanistan, Methi has a slightly bitter taste and aroma — if you can’t smell it, it’s not fresh. Use in curries.
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