Ooti Ashangba/Chagem Ooti Manipuri Green Rice Porridge

OOTI Thongba (Thongba means cooking) is a classic vegetarian dish of Manipur usually made with rice, pulses and different type of vegetables with baking soda.

- Maradona Meetei Ashangbam

OOTI comes from the Manipuri word ‘Oot’ which means ashes. In earlier period in Manipur, ooti is made using ashes (obtained from burning down of dried pea plants after harvesting of peas or dried plantain stems) instead of baking soda. That’s why it is so called Ooti. There are few variation of making ooti and accordingly the name differ from each other based on the ingredient used, they are Ooti Ashangba/ Chagem Ooti (Green/ Rice Ooti) , Mangal Ooti (Dried peas Ooti), Ushoi Ooti (Bamboo shoot Ooti), Torbot Ooti (Ash gourd/ winter melon Ooti), Sagolhawai Ooti (Black lentil Ooti), Sagolhawai pan Ooti (Black lentil and taro root Ooti), etc.

HERE is the recipe for Ooti Ashangba, (Ashangba means green in Manipuri) as the dish will be green in colour by using wild taro leaves (Pangkhok-La in Manipur) as one of the main ingredient. It is also known as Chagem Ooti (Chagem which means broken rice is preferably used).