If I am trying any new vegetable I will either make koottu or just do a simple stir fry to first get acquired to its taste. Koottu is nothing but a semi-solid gravy which is prepared by cooking vegetable & pulses together. Later add coconut+jeera+greenchilli paste is added for flavor & spice. Generally in Tambrahm households coconut is not given for the initial few days as part of postpartum diet. But I started including them in my diet after 3 weeks post delivery. So if you aren’t allowed to use coconut then just grind jeera& chilli alone to a paste.
My mom never cooked bottlegourd at home since it was the least favorite vegetable for my father & grandparents..The habit continued and I never cooked with it too..So to be frank only after delivery I started including it in my diet. That too because I read in internet that it aides breastmilk secretion & few of my friends suggested too. Now it has become a part of my weekly menu & it definitely increases supply.
The same method can be used for preparing other vegetables based kootu too. Just substitute bottle gourd with
– Chowchow/Chayote Squash
– Snake Gourd
– Ridge Gourd
– Avarakkai
The following measurement serves four people. Adjust accordingly.
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- 1 Bottle Gourd
- 1/2 cup MoongDal
- 1/4 cup coconut
- 2 tbsp jeera
- 2 small green chilli
- 1/2 tbsp Ghee or Coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1/2 tsp urad dal
- Few Curry leaves
Ingredients
For Tadka
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- Chop Bottlegourd into pieces
- Pressure cook moongdal and bottlegourd together for upto 4 whistles with a pinch of salt & turmeric
- In the meantime grind coconut,jeera & green chilli to a fine paste
- Once the pressure is released, add the coconut paste
- Add little water. Mix everything well
- Let it boil for 4-5 minutes
- At last prepare tadka
- Heat coconut oil or ghee in a tadka pan
- Add urad dal, mustard seeds
- Let them splutter
- Add a pinch of hing & curry leaves later
- This finishing touch of tadka is essential
- It adds so much flavour & aroma to koottu