7 recipes. Page 1 of 1
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Start with recipes grouped by cooking time and how they fit the meal.
Starch from soaked chana dal, split chickpeas, thickens the pot into something spoonable, while cubed bottle gourd lends moisture and gentle sweetness. Small, nutty bits of chana stay noticeable in the finished dal, which is eaten warm over rice or scooped up with flatbread.
Firm bottle gourd is sliced thin, salted briefly, stir-fried, and then finished covered with a splash of water. When it is done, the edges turn translucent and a chopstick slides in easily. Garlic and green onion are the only aromatics, which keeps the gourd's mild flavor up front.
Grated bottle gourd is sautéed in ghee, simmered down in milk, and finished with sugar and cardamom until it is thick as jam and holds the trail of a spatula. Only the firm white flesh goes in, with the soft seedy core scooped out, and the gourd is cooked until its water is driven off before any milk is added.
Coarsely grated bottle gourd (lauki) gets only a brief boil before it meets the yogurt and stays soft with a little bite instead of turning to mush. It sits beside spicy curries and flatbreads to cool the palate.
Grated bottle gourd, a watery squash, is squeezed dry, bound with chickpea flour and spices, and fried into dumplings that finish in a tomato and onion sauce as a meatless curry. The turmeric, chili powder, and garam masala are split between the dumpling mix and the sauce, so both carry the same spice.
Gujarati thepla is whole wheat flatbread, and this version is kneaded with grated bottle gourd and its juice in place of water. The dough looks stiff at first, but water added then leaves it slack after resting, since the gourd keeps releasing moisture.
This Andhra chutney blends sauteed bottle gourd with urad dal, chana dal, green chili, and tamarind, and the blender stops before anything turns smooth. The toasted dal stays in small, nutty grains. Once it is in the bowl, a hot tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, and asafoetida is poured over.