Seto Bhatmas: Wholesome White Soybeans for Curries and Soups

Seto Bhatmas — सेतो भटमास, white soybeans — are one of the most important plant proteins in Nepali home cooking. Cream-coloured and rounded, they cook down soft and savoury, soaking up spice while holding a satisfying, substantial bite.

In a cuisine where meat was historically reserved for special days, bhatmas quietly carried the nutritional load of everyday meals — a humble bean doing essential work.

White soybeans shine in bhatmas ko tarkari, a hearty soybean curry simmered with onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, and turmeric until thick and rich. They are equally at home in soups and in the festive nine-bean Kwati, where they add body and protein.

A pinch of jimbu in the tempering lifts a pot of bhatmas the way it lifts dal, tying it to the wider tradition of Himalayan home cooking. Soaked first and simmered slow, the beans turn meltingly tender.

Soybean (bhatmas) is an ancient Nepali crop, grown the country over but in a very characteristic way: rather than great monocrop fields, it is most often raised in kitchen gardens, along terrace edges, and intercropped with other staples — relayed with maize in the mid- and far-western hills, and grown alongside rice in the Terai. This "companion crop" habit reflects its old role as the everyday protein that quietly rounded out hill meals.

Because soybean grows almost everywhere, no single region owns it, but it is especially central to hill and Himalayan home cooking. It is one of the nine pulses sprouted into the festive Kwati soup at Janai Purnima / Gunhu Punhi, and a pinch of jimbu in the tempering ties a pot of bhatmas to the broader tradition of Himalayan cooking.

Dried white soybeans are economical, protein-dense, and endlessly storable — exactly the kind of staple that makes Nepali home cooking practical in Canada. They are a natural fit for vegetarian and budget-conscious households alike.

Soak, simmer, and spice them the way home does. Order authentic Nepali Seto Bhatmas from our Nepali grocery in Canada and keep a hearty curry always within reach.