🥔 SIDE
Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish)
A fiery raw relish of chopped chilies, tomato, red onion and coriander, crumbled with fresh cheese and seasoned with salt and numbing Sichuan pepper, spooned onto rice.
Bhutanese · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 0 min
~104 cal · 4g protein · 3g carbs · 8g fat · 1g fiber · 2g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Ezay is the relish on the side of almost every Bhutanese plate. A meal is typically a mound of red rice, one or two dishes such as ema datshi, and a spoonful of ezay, which each diner mixes into the rice to set the heat of every mouthful.
At its simplest it is chilies ground or chopped with salt, then pounded or stirred with tomato, onion, garlic and coriander. The version made with datshi, the soft farmer's cheese of Bhutan, is called cheese ezay: the cheese softens the burn and makes the relish creamy and a little tangy. Its tingle comes from thingey, the local peppercorn the rest of the world knows as Sichuan pepper.
There is no single recipe. Some cooks use fresh green chilies, others soaked or fried dried red ones; some roast the tomatoes and chilies over a flame first. Outside Bhutan, feta or a dry cottage cheese stands in well for datshi.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 6 to 10 (about 60 g) fresh green or red chilies, finely chopped, or dried red chilies, soaked
- 2 medium (about 150 g) ripe tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
- 1/2 small (about 50 g) red onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced, optional
- 1 small bunch (about 20 g) fresh coriander, chopped
- 60 g datshi (Bhutanese farmer cheese), crumbledHard to find? feta or dry cottage cheese, crumbled - feta is saltier and tangier than datshi, so hold back some salt
- 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (thingey), crushed
- 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tbsp , optional
Instructions
- 1Chop the chilies finely, seeding some of them first if you want less heat.✎ Chef’s noteDried red chilies give a deeper, smokier ezay: soften them in hot water for 10 minutes first, then drain and chop. Wear gloves or wash your hands well afterwards.
- 2Put the chilies in a bowl or mortar with the salt and bruise them together with a spoon or pestle until they soften and give up a little juice.
- 3Add the tomato, onion, garlic and crushed Sichuan pepper and mix or pound lightly. Keep it chunky, or pound longer for a smoother relish.
- 4Crumble in the cheese, add the coriander and the oil if using, and stir together. Taste for salt and serve at once beside rice and the rest of the meal.✎ Chef’s noteEzay is best fresh. Made ahead, the tomato weeps and the onion turns sharp.
Bhutanese home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Thimphu. Datshi is the other half of the name: a soft fresh cheese of cow or yak milk that melts down into a sauce rather than pulling into strings. The chillies arrive in three states, green, sun-dried red and dried white, and which one goes into the pot changes the dish more than the cheese does.
🗺️
Bhutan. Bhutanese cuisine is fiercely chili-loving, and its national dish, ema datshi, is simply chilies stewed in cheese. Red rice, buckwheat, and yak dairy sustain life in the high Himalayas.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bhutan
Ema DatshiBhutan’s national dish: green chilies stewed as the vegetable, not the seasoning, in a silky cheese sauce.
Khur-leRustic buckwheat pancakes from the Bhutanese highlands, eaten with chili-cheese ezay.
Jasha MarooA soupy, spicy minced-chicken stew with tomato, ginger, and coriander, a warming everyday Bhutanese dish.
Browse all Bhutan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Mortar and pestle.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Bhutan meal
Suja (Butter Tea)Drink
KhabzeyDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish)?
A fiery raw relish of chopped chilies, tomato, red onion and coriander, crumbled with fresh cheese and seasoned with salt and numbing Sichuan pepper, spooned onto rice.
Where does Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish) come from?
Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish) is a Bhutanese dish from Thimphu, Bhutan.
Can Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Ezay (Bhutanese Chili and Cheese Relish) take to make?
About 15 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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