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Curries and stews

Ema datshi

Bhutan's national dish: whole green or red chillies stewed in a melted sauce of local datshi cheese.

Ema datshi is a stew of chillies, ema, and cheese, datshi, from Bhutan. Large green or dried red chillies are cooked with onion and tomato in water, then a soft farmhouse cheese is melted in to make a thick, rich sauce. It is eaten with red rice at almost every meal and is widely called Bhutan's national dish.

What goes in

Datshi: 28%28%Chillies: 39%39%Onion: 11%11%Tomato: 11%11%Garlic: 6%Oil or butter: 6%6parts
  • Datshi528%, Soft farmhouse cheese.
  • Chillies739%, Green or dried red, split.
  • Onion211%, Sliced.
  • Tomato211%, Chopped.
  • Garlic16%, Optional.
  • Oil or butter16%, A little.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Layer Split the chillies lengthways and slice the onion.
  2. Step 2: Simmer Simmer chillies, onion and a little oil in water until soft.
  3. Step 3: Simmer Add tomato and garlic and cook a few minutes more.
  4. Step 4: Melt Break the datshi into the pot and stir until it melts into a sauce.
  5. Step 5: Serve Rest off the heat briefly, then serve with red rice.
  6. Datshi: 28%28%Chillies: 39%39%Onion: 11%11%Tomato: 11%11%Garlic: 6%Oil or butter: 6%
    Finished Ema datshi, by share.

Chilli as vegetable

In Bhutan, chillies are treated as a vegetable, not a seasoning. They are eaten in large quantities, fresh in summer and dried on rooftops for winter. Ema datshi uses them whole or in long strips, and the heat can be fierce. Variations swap the chillies for potatoes (kewa datshi), mushrooms (shamu datshi) or green beans, but the cheese sauce stays.

Datshi

Datshi is a soft cheese made by Bhutanese farmers, traditionally from cow's milk. It is mild, slightly sour and melts easily. In some recipes a little crumbly hard cheese, or even feta abroad, is used when datshi is not available. Yak milk cheese is used in the high north, where herders keep yaks rather than cattle. The dish is always eaten with rice, never on its own.

Where it is used

Everyday lunch and dinnerWith red rice

The cheeses in it

DatshiThe Bhutanese cheese that makes the sauce.ChhurpiHimalayan cheese also used in Bhutan.

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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