Lauki dal/ Bottle gourd lentil curry/ Sorakaya pappu is a delicious and easy to make dal/ lentil based curry prepared with bottle gourd as the name goes. I was extremely bored to prepare that same old sorkaya milk curry/ kootu (a coconut based curry) all the time with bottle gourd so was searching for a new recipe that time I was inspired by this simple and quick to make nutritious dal so immediately made it last week. I took the recipe from a random blog (sorry don’t remember the name) but surely I can tell she nailed this recipe. This lentil curry goes well with white rice, roti and dosa as well. In this recipe I used dry red chilli as mentioned in the other blog but if it was replaced with curd chilli /mor milagai as usually tempered for most of the pappau/ dal in Andhra cuisine. So let’s get to the making!
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PREP TIME
COOK TIME
TOTAL TIME
SERVES
10 min
25 min
35 min
4
Ingredients
Toor dal – 1 cup
Bottle – 1 (small)
Onion – 1 (small)
Tomato – 1 (small)
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – to taste
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Water – 3 cups (approx)
TO TEMPER
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Broken urad dal – 1 tsp
Oil – 1 tbsp
Dry red chilli – 1
Curry leaves – a string
Hing – a pinch
Note
* 1 cup = 235 ml
How to make Sorakaya pappu with step by step images
Wash toor dal well. In a pressure cooker add washed toor dal, turmeric powder, 2 cups of water and ¼ tsp cumin seeds/ jeera. Pressure cook for 4 whistles or until dal reaches mashy consistency.
When the pressure has subsided open the lid and mash dal well. Keep it aside.
Wash, peel and chop bottle gourd/ sorakkai into small cubes. keep it aside. Heat oil in a pan/ kadai, to it add mustard seeds when it splutters add urad dal, dry red chilli, hing chopped ginger, jeera, and curry leaves. Now add chopped onion and saute.
When the onions look sauteed add tomato, salt and little turmeric. Saute well.
Now when everything looks add chopped bottle gourd and saute well. Cover the pan/ kadai with lid and cook in low to medium flame for 5 minutes with occasional stir. Sorakay/ lauki cooks very quickly. Do not add any water while cooking as the veggie leaves enough water with which it will be cooked.
After 5 minutes add the cooked toor dal. Along with it I added 1 cup water to get right consistency. Allow the mixture to boil well for 5 minutes. When everything looks combined switch off the flame and serve it hot with rice, roti or dosa.