Ever heard of red bhindi? This ‘Kashi Lalima’ ladyfinger is more nutritious than its green version

Everyone knows about ladyfinger, popularly known as bhindi in Hindi. A quintessential summer staple in most Indian households, this vegetable is versatile with no newness in its colour or texture. But what if you get to know that there’s an absolutely eye-grabbing variant of bhindi, known as the ‘Kashi Lalima’ or the ‘Red Bhindi’.

Even though it was innovated by agricultural experts two years ago at the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR) in Varanasi, it took at least 8-10 years of research and development to actually develop Kashi Lalima. But unlike the green ladyfinger, which consists of chlorophyl, the red Bhindi has ‘anthocyanins’, which are pigments found naturally in foods, that give red, purple, and blue plants their rich coloring.

If experts are to be believed, then this red colour variant is much more nutritious and healthy than the regular green ladyfinger variant due to it’s antioxidant-rich properties and its richness in calcium and iron.

Kashi Lalima is as easy to grow as the regular bhindi and also costs similar to the green one.

After the seeds became available for cultivation, more than Uttar Pradesh, farmers from states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh started growing it in their fields and even earned profits by selling them.