Bottle gourd gravy <= You win the quickest and easiest ever side dish for the month of November. You are pretty gorgeous by look and incredibly delicious to accompany the plain flat bread.
Friends. I see you, a hungry reader whose life is crazy right now, who has a hard time finding the time to cook though you love food. I see you and understand you because I am just like you in these feelings, and today I honor you with this pretty, veggie loaded, super tasty bottle gourd gravy that can pair any flat bread like chapati or sorghum rotti. I accidentally (or is it intentionally?) happen to end up with a recipe that’s healthy, quick and easy where you spend less time in kitchen and eat more delicious food on dinner table.
We’re starting with the humble and nutrients loaded bottle gourd which easily gets peeled off and cubed to square perfection in minutes. As I mentioned it as a humble veggie, cooking time is really very less. The solid base for this gravy is with onions and tomatoes which nicely get along in a seasoning that is topped with basic spices for the basic taste. The super ingredient home made sambar powder and roasted peanut powder are the key in making the bottle gourd gravy saucy, thick and colorful.
When I made it for the first time, it rocked my taste-buds as accompaniment of sorghum rotti and today it was all awesome with chapati.
Easy Bottle Gourd Gravy | Chapati Side Dish
Ingredients
- Bottle gourd- 1 Small or 1.5 cups of cubes
- Onion- 2 nos.
- Tomato- 2 nos.
- Peanuts- 1/8 cup
- Salt- 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
- Red chilly powder- 1 tsp
- Sambar powder- 3 tsp
Seasoning ingredients
- Cooking oil- 3 tsp
- Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
- Split black gram lentils- 1/2 tsp
- Curry leaves- Few
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash and peel off the bottle gourd and chop it in to small cubes. Discard the seeds if any. Cook these cubes till soft in enough water.
Method
- Assemble all the ingredients. Peel off onions and chop them in to fine pieces. Similarly get the tomatoes chopped finely. Also, using a small pan, dry roast the peanuts till they shed the skin off.
- Take the roasted peanuts in a mixer and powder it coarsely. Next heat a pan with all the seasoning ingredients, as the mustard seeds sizzle and pop, add chopped onions and saute till they turn translucent.
- Include the finely chopped tomatoes and continue sauteing. The tomatoes turn mushy and soft, then add the red chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt and sambar powder.
- Next step is to add cooked bottle gourd cubes along with it's water. Let it cook for few minutes and infuse all spice flavors. Finally add roasted peanut powder and give a final mix. Switch off after couple of minutes.
- Easiest bottle gourd gravy is ready to serve as side dish with chapati or sorghum rotti.
Notes
- Choose immature bottle gourd for better taste as they don't have chewy seeds in them.
- You can use any brand sambar powder, I used home made one.
- If your sambar powder is not spicy, increase red chilly powder to kick up the spice.
- The peanut powder is the real flavor booster of this gravy. So do not skip it.
