Bottle Gourd dal – a comforting healthy food for babies and adults made with Indian lentils, tempered with cumin seeds. Dal is our family favorite and I make it at least once a week with slight variations like adding vegetables or only with seasoning.
This bottle gourd is one of the tastiest dal and very quick to make with in minutes also kids eat this without any complaints!, It goes well with jeera rice, Chapati or roti, even hot steamed plain rice. Bottle Gourd Dal can be given to babies from 10 months without Chili.
Now Let’s get on to check how to make this bottle gourd dal.
- Toor dal - ¼ cup +2 tbsp
- Moong Dal - ¼ cup
- Bottle Gourd -2 cups chopped
- Water -1.5 cups
- Green chillies - 1
- Big onion - 1 medium sized
- Tomato - 2 medium sized
- Garlic - 5
- Asafoetida/Hing - ⅛ tsp
- Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
- Coriander leaves - 1 tsp (to garnish)
- Salt - as required
- Ghee/butter/oil- 1 tbsp
- Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
- Red chilies - 1
- Green chilies - 1
- Curry leaves - 1 sprig
- Dry roast 1 tsp of whole pepper in a small pan until nice aroma comes. Cool it down and grind in a blender/mixie to a coarse powder.
- Chop onions, garlic, green chilies and tomatoes finely . Set aside. Wash toor dal thoroughly 2-3 times and soak it in water for 5 minutes.
- Take the soaked toor dal in a pressure cooker, add 1.25 cups of water, chopped onions, tomatoes, green chilies, garlic,hing, turmeric powder and required salt. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and pressure cook it for 3 whistles in medium flame.
- Once pressure released , open the cooker. Mash it slightly using a spoon.
- Heat ghee in a pan and add cumming seeds. Fry it until cumin seeds cracks. Then add curry leaves, red chilies, freshly grounded black pepper powder and saute them for a minute. switch off the flame once done.
- If the dal is watery, boil it in medium flame for 3 minutes or until it becomes thick. Dont boil it too much as cooking the dal too much, spoils its taste. Once the dal becomes slightly thick, add tempered items and give a quick stir. Switch off the flame once done and garnish with chopped coriander leaves
Method:








- If you want the dal to be more spicy,add more chillies.
- Any vegetable of your choice can be added to prepare this dal.
- Dont boil the too much after pressure cooking as cooking the dal too much, as its spoils the taste.
- Adjust spice levels according to your child’s preference.
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