Sorakkai Kootu / Bottle Gourd Dhall

Sorakkai Kootu / Bottle Gourd Dhall

The health benefits of the sorakkai / bottle gourd or fondly called as Lagenaria siceraria by botanists.. are that it promotes weight loss, helps digestion, treats constipation, provides cooling effect, replenishes loss of water content, keeps the heart and liver healthy, blah blah.. and lot more. But the main reason I like to use sorakkai is because.. its easily available and cooks quickly. Sorakkai kootu is a one pot dish.

Sorakkai  is such a polite vegetable, it does not have any intense flavour so it compliments  any other ingredient you add with it. There is one dish which my ammamma and mom makes - sorakkai-shrimp (prawns) curry, where the sorakai takes up this shrimp flavour and the whole dish tastes shrimp-licious !

Okay.. now back to sorakkai kootu.. This kootu is such an easy time-friendly dish which goes well with white rice, chapathi, or as sidedish for kara kuzhambu rice. Its an one-pot dish. 

Tempering with simple spices keeps it mild and healthy.

Ingredients:

• Sorakkai (Bottle gourd) - 500 grams
• Yellow split moong dhal (pachai / paitham paruppu) - 2 to 3 tablespoons
• Onion - 1 small
• Tomato - 1 small
• Green chilli - 2 medium
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Coconut gratings - 1 tablespoon
• Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Dry red chillies - 3
• Asafoetida - 1 pinch
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Salt - as required

Procedure:

• Wash the yellow moong dhal and soak it for at least 15 minutes.
• Then transfer the soaked dhal to a small cooker.
• Wash, peel and cut the sorakkai into small pieces and transfer it to the cooker along with the dhal.
• Cut the onion, tomato, green chillies and peel the garlic and add to the dhal in the cooker.
• Add the turmeric powder and salt.
• Cover the cooker and let the pressure come. Put the weight, cook in sim for 5-7 minutes. Then turn off the heat.
• Open the cooker after some time. 
• Add the grated coconut. Mix once.
• For tempering, heat some oil in a small tempering pan, add mustard leaves, dry red chillies, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. Add this to the contents in the cooker.
• Give it a stir. Keep it on stove for 5 more minutes till everything comes together. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve this sorakkai / bottle gourd kootu with hot rice and appalam. It also goes well as simple side dish with chapathi for dinner.

You can also drizzle few drops of coconut oil in the end to freshen it up further. Relish!

Happy cooking !!