Surakkai Thayir Kuzhambu | Bottle Gourd Raita Video Recipe

Surakkai Thayir Kuzhambu or Pachadi| Bottle Gourd Raita is a healthy and tasty dish which requires minimal ingredients and even curd haters like this recipe to core. I don’t eat plain curd / yogurt

as it is but I like this recipe and anything in the form of raita. In Kongunad people call curd based pachadi or raita as “Thayir Kuzhambu” and the cooked version is called “Mor Kuzhambu”. This recipe is passed by amma and grew up eating. I still remember the flavor Amma makes with our farm based organic curd. Now my kids started liking it and to them I introduced it in last summer. Since then both likes this dish, so I make this on an off and even I make in winter as well.

Healthy Benefits of Bottle Gourd

We eat a lot of hot and spicy foods in winter and intake of fluid/water is less compared to summer. So I make sure we take right and good food according to the season. Bottle gourd is rich in water content and also this lauki brings down bad cholesterol level. It is rich in Iron, Calcium and Vitamin K sources. A single plant in my garden yielded much more than what we expected. I stored excess in gallon Ziploc bag in the freezer (refer video). Also that single plant hid other plants in my raised garden bed and you can see some garden produce on different days.

Healthy benefits of Curd

Curd is rich in calcium, improves digestion, strengthens immunity and bone growth. The traditional curd has probiotic, also this recipe uses uncooked curd and so you can enjoy as it is to attain its nutritional benefits. On the whole curd is good for gut and so as this recipe.

Surakkai Thayir Kuzhambu Preparation

• Clean and Peel the outer skin of bottle gourd.
• Pick tender ones from garden or store.
• Chop into small cube size (Pic 1) and also use flesh and tiny seeds of the bottle gourd for this recipe.

• Add a little water (Pic 2) and pressure cook directly for one whistle or cook in PIP (Pot In Pot) method by cooking with other stuff (placing a pot inside the cooker) in Pressure cooker (Pic 3) or Instant Pot.
• Use the veggie cooked water for making this raita or in other curries.
• Make the other ingredients ready for seasoning (Pic 4).
• Add oil to a pan, temper with mustard seeds.
• Add urad dal when dal turns golden brown add chopped onion, chilis and curry leaves.
• If you have split urad dal do use it, which gives nice crunchy texture to this raita.

• Sauté the mixture till onion changes nice golden brown (Pic 5).
• Add it to the cooked bottle gourd and let the mixture cool completely (pic 6).
• Do cool the cooked/sautéed stuff before adding curd, this is one very important point to note.
• Once cooled add curd (Pic 7) and adjust consistency with cooked veggie water or drinking water (Pic 8).
• Serve with Rice, Roti or Dosa.

Ingredients

Cubed Bottle Gourd – 1 Cup
Curd/Yogurt– 1 Cup
Whole or Split Urad Dal – 1 Tbsp
Chopped Onion/ Shallot (tastes great) – 1/3 Cup
Red chili – 1-2 Numbers
Curry Leaves – Few
Mustard Seeds – For tempering
Salt – As Needed

Video Tutorial

Recipe Card

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Surakkai Thayir Pachadi

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

 

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 4

Author: Sangeetha Priya

Ingredients

• Cubed Bottle Gourd – 1 Cup
• Curd/Yogurt- 1 Cup
• Whole or Split Urad Dal – 1 Tbsp
• Chopped Onion – 1/3 Cup
• Red chili – 1-2 Numbers
• Curry Leaves – Few
• Mustard Seeds – 1/4tsp
• Salt – As Needed

Instructions

1. Add a little water (Pic 2) and pressure cook directly for one whistle or cook in PIP (Pot In Pot) method by cooking with other stuff (placing a pot inside the cooker) in Pressure cooker (Pic 3) or Instant Pot.
2. Use the veggie cooked water for making raita or in other curries.
3. Make the other ingredients ready for seasoning (Pic 4).
4. Add oil to a pan, temper with mustard seeds.
5. Add urad dal when dal turns golden brown add chopped onion, chilis and curry leaves.
6. Sauté the mixture till onion changes nice golden brown (Pic 5).
7. Add it to the cooked bottle gourd and let the mixture cool completely (pic 6).
8. Once cooled add curd (Pic 7) and adjust consistency with cooked veggie water or drinking water (Pic 8).
9. Serve with Rice, Roti or Dosa.

I do post my lunch ideas/recipes in Instagram page, do follow if you like to hear my everyday chit chats 🙂

I am having few more lauki recipes in draft using garden yields will try to post as soon as I can. Also I started my own garden series and this is the 4th recipe for this season. Click the below button to see my garden yield recipe collection for 2020.