Lauki Raita: Yogurt Dip with Bottle Gourd

Raita (yogurt dip), with bottle gourd as its prime ingredient, provides a lovely balance to rich Indian gravies. Bottle gourd and yogurt are bland on their own, but the other ingredients that go with lauki raita give it a suprising tangy twist.

You Need:

• Bottle Gourd – 200 grams
• Yogurt – 250 grams
• Curry leaves – 10
• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Green chilies – 2, chopped fine
• Ginger – 1/2 teaspoon, grated
• Sugar – 1/2 teaspoon (adjust to taste)
• Kala namak (black salt) – to taste
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – 1/2 teaspoon

How To Make Lauki Raita:

Peel and grate the bottle gourd.

Bring four cups of salted water to a boil. Add the grated bottle gourd to boiling water. Simmer for a minute.

Let it stand covered for another 5 minutes.

Strain, run cold water over the boiled bottle gourd and squeeze dry.

Beat the yogurt along with sugar, black salt, regular table salt, grated ginger and finely chopped green chilies.

Mix the grated and cooked bottle gourd with the seasoned curd.

Do the tadka: In a tadka ladle, heat half a teaspoon of oil. When the oil is smoking hot, turn off the heat and drop a teaspoon of mustard seeds and curry leaves into the oil. The mustard seeds will pop and curry leaves will turn crisp.

Transfer contents of the kadhai into the lauki raita. Mix.

Refrigerate for an hour or more before serving. Serve as an accompaniment with any Indian meal – chapatis/rice, dal, a vegetable curry.

Meal below: chapatis, pumpkin kidney bean curry, lauki raita.

Notes:

Also check out other interesting ways of combining bottle gourd with yogurt: a Karnataka-style majjige huli and Kashmiri-style dahi wali lauki.

Also try other raitas with vegetables from the gourd family: chayote raita, cucumber raita.