Healthy and tasty Ridge gourd / turai / bhartha

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This humble fleshy vegetable is a bit bland in taste and comes in two variants, one with smooth surface called sponge gourd /Nethi beerakaya in Telugu, other one is called Beerakaya with ridged skin. Even though it is bland in taste it has got lot of health benefits and this vegetable is a source of antioxidants , minerals, vitamins and helps in promoting immunity and eye health. It is very beneficial for diabetics also. This vegetable can be used in lot of preparations like dal, masala curries, chutney etc. Here iam giving a recipe ridge gourd bhartha not exactly but a bit similar to baingan bhartha.
Ingredients:
Tender ridge gourd – 300 gms,
Onion – 2 medium, sliced fine,
Green chilli – 4 chopped fine,
Dhania powder – 1 tablesp
Garam masala – 1/4 tsp,
Jeera – 1/4 tsp,
Haldi – 2 pinch,
Salt,
Oil – 3 Tablesp,
Peeled and crushed garlic cloves – 6,
Ginger garlic paste – 3/4 tsp,
Curry leaves – few,
Chopped coriander leaves – 1 tablesp,
Thick tamarind paste – 1/4 tsp, ( optional ).
Tomato – 1 medium, chopped fine,
Method:
1).Wash, scrape the skin of gourds, check for bitterness and cut into 1 inch pieces ( .or you can roughly chop them ). Sprinkle salt over the pieces and gently crush the gourd pieces with clean hand. Keep it aside.
2). In a blender put chillies, garlic, haldi, using pulse ,prepare a course paste.
3).Add gourd pieces to the blender along with its juice and pulse twice. Remove the ground paste into a bowl.
4).Heat oil in a kadai, add onions, jeera, green chilli, curry leaves and fry till onion becomes soft. Add tomato and fry till it becomes pulpy. Add ginger garlic paste , dhania powder and fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic disappears.
5).Add the course ground paste, garam masala and fry under low flame till all the ingredients are blended well and oil appears at the edges. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and remove from flame.
6).Serve this yummy side dish with hot plain rice/ rice preparations /chapathi / poori etc.
Tip:
You can go through my other interesting recipes with beerakaya / ridge gourd.

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