About:

I steam cooked  the chopped zucchini with French beans until tender and crunchy – mashed a few cooked veggies and smothered it in a delicious curry sauce made with spices.

This Doodhi/bottle gourd sagu/curry recipe was one meal I was pretty excited about. I wanted something hot and spicy for lunch and all I had in the fridge, vegetable wise, was some limpy looking Bottle gourd.

This sauce is legendary, by the way – I used it for this incredible set dosa recipe a few weeks ago. It was just a fabulous/delicious combo, it can work as a base for any curry you can think of.

Yields-3-4 servings
Preparation time-15 minutes
Cooking time-20 minutes

Ingredients:

• bottle gourd-1medium (washed and diced ) (I retained the skin of the gourd but it can be peeled if desired)
• French beans-chopped-1/2cup
• Frozen peas-1/4cup
• Diced bell peppers/capsicum-1num
• Chopped onion-1medium
• Oil-2tsp
• Mustard seeds-1tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Lemon/lime juice- to taste

For the sagu masala:

• Oil-1tsp
• Cinnamon stick-1
• Cloves-4-5
• Coriander seeds-1tbsp
• Cumin seeds-1tsp
• Pepper corns-6-8
• dessicated coconut-1/4cup
• roasted channa dal/dahlia-2tbsp
• green chillies-3-4
• fresh mint leaves-1/4cup
• fresh coriander leaves-2-3sprigs

For garnishing:

• Chopped fresh coriander

Procedure:

• Steam cook bottle gourd and French beans until tender- (approx~8-10minutes) and set aside

For sagu masala:

• Meanwhile prepare the masala for sagu.
• Heat oil in a saucepan/kadai add green chillies, cinnamon, cloves, pepper corns,cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fry until fragrant/2-3minutes on a medium low flame. Once fried allow it to cool.
• Now grind the fried ingredients with coconut, mint, coriander, roasted dahlia to coarse paste by adding some water and set aside.

For Sagu:

• Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan/kadai add mustard seeds as it crackles , add onion and saute until translucent.
• Add bell peppers/capsicum, peas and fry for 4-5minutes.
• Add ground sagu masala and cook until the mixture leaves oil/thickens slightly and then add steamed bottle gourd, beans, salt, water ( I used the stock from the steamed bottle gourd, beans) mix well, cover and let it cook for 8-10minutes, stirring ocassionally.
• Once the curry/sagu attains the desired consistency and turn off the flame.
• Stir in lemon/lime juice ,garnish with fresh coriander.

• Serve hot with

Set dosa

Brown rice dosa

Instant Cucmber and Oats Idli

Spinach rava idli

Note:

• Fresh coconut can be used alternatively to desiccated coconut
• Combination of vegetables can be personalised as per the taste
• I retained the skin of the bottle gourd – feel free to peel and chop it before steaming.
• Adjust the consistency of sagu by adding extra water/vegetable stock .
• You can easily substitute pumpkin/squash or any of your favourite veggies. The “curry” part of this recipe is flexible. Use your favorite curry powder, garam masala, or any spice mix.