Have I mentioned in my earlier post that Bottle Gourd aka Lau is known as the King Vegetable in Bangladesh? If I said that before, pardon me but I am saying it again, bottle gourd is the KING of all vegetables! It is so versatile that it can be cooked in so many different ways – vegetarian, non vegetarian, spreads, stir fry you name it! Bottle gourd has lots of health benefits. It aids in digestion, constipation and make you feel full longer without having to intake too much calories. I can’t stress enough that it is a fabulous vegetable that you can have it often to not only diversify your palate but also to improve your skin, digestion and infection.

To make today’s curry I have chosen potato and tomato as the pair to go with bottle gourd. Other ingredients are very basic for example- turmeric powder, cumin powder, chili powder, coriander powder onion, salt. fresh coriander leaves and green chili. However, today I have used an extra ingredient – red lentils because I wanted to make the gravy a bit thicker.

First I peeled the bottle gourd and cut into length-wise pieces. Of course I did not through aways the peels, I made Bhorrta (spread) from it which you can see here. You can also make some stir fried or Bhaji with the peels, which recipe I will add later on.
As you can see in the picture, the inner flesh of the gourd is bit like honeycombed, that could mean the gourd is bit old (in Bengali we call it “Batti”), although an older or mature bottle gourd has bigger and harder seeds, which I haven’t found while cutting this gourd. To be honest, it was bit weird to see this texture, although the taste didn’t hamper by this.

To begin with, I have sauteed some onions in a pan/wok. When onions were golden brown, I added a spice paste to it, which I made earlier. I combined all the dry spices like coriander, turmeric, cumin and chili powers with some water set them aside, that I added to the onion. This way the spices do not get burned. After cooking the spices together with onion, I added washed lentils and continued to cook in low to medium heat. You can add a splash of water to avoid burning lentils.

Lentils are half cooked already and oils are getting separated. At this step, I added sliced potatoes and cooked for a while.

After a 5-6 minutes of cooking the potatoes, I added bottle gourd slices and combined everything very well. After “koshano” or stirring potatoes and gourds for a while, I added some warm water, sliced green chilies and covered to pan to let the veggies cook.

I stirred all veggies ones in a while. The gravy is looking thicker and veggies are getting cooked.

When potatoes and gourds are cooked (check with wooden spoon if they are cooked), then I added sliced tomatoes. Remember, if you add tomatoes earlier, it makes harder for the veggies to get cooked. There’s some enzymes in tomatoes that hinders the cooking process.

We are almost at the last step of the cooking, the gravy is thicker, all veggies are cooked, tomato is cooked and blended well too. To finish it up, I added fresh coriander leaves as a garnish. Trust me, fresh coriander makes the curry taste ever better, however if you don’t like it, just skip the step.

Recipe: 4-5 servings Prepping time: 10min, Cooking time: 30min

Ingredients: 1 Bottle Gourd 400g 1 big onion 2 Potatoes 1 Tomato 1/4 cup red lentils Spices and condiments: 1/2 Tsp Turmeric powder 1/2 Tsp Chili powder 1/2 Tsp coriander powder 1/2 Tsp cumin powder 2 tbsp salt Green Chilies to taste Green coriander leaves to taste oil

Instructions: 1. Peel bottle gourd slice them thin. Slice the potatoes. 2. Mix all dry spices (turmeric, cumin, coriander and cumin) with some water, make a paste and set them aside. 3. Heat vegetable oil in medium temperature and add onion slices when oil is heated. Saute until slightly golden. Add spice paste to onion and cook until oil is separated. 4. Add sliced potatoes and washed lentils, salt and green chili. Stir well to mix everything. Cover and let it cook for 5min in low heat. 5. Add sliced bottle gourd pieces to the pan and stir well to mix everything. Add warm water, cover and cook until gravy is thick. 6. Add tomato slice and coriander leaves to the end and cook for five more minutes. When it reaches to your desired gravy, take off from the heat. Serve with plain white rice or ruti.