A fabulous recipe that finds its way to a fat free feast!…This gently flavoured variant of sambar made with tender, deep green ridge gourd feels at home when served with steamed rice or rotis. Huli Thove and its twin “Majjige Huli” are proven partners in South Karnataka feasts.High in fiber, low in saturated fat, rich in minerals, poor in cholesterol, Ridge Gourd and its juice is nature’s prescription to heal jaundice, cure acne, cool any burning experience associated with urine, combat acidity, contain sugar levels…and much more!

Dish Type:  South Indian Vegetable Stew

Preparation Time:  20 min

Cooking time:  30 min

Serves:  5 persons

Ingredients

For pressure cooking:

Tur dhal                       40 gms (3 tbsps approx.)

Water                          250 ml

Turmeric powder        A pinch

Tomato                        ¼ kg (i.e. 3 nos. medium size. After cooking, use this for grinding)

Ghee                            A drop

For boiling

Ridge Gourd                ½ kg (say 6 nos. medium size)

Tamarind paste           1 tsp

Curry leaves                1 sprig

Salt to taste                 3 ½ tsps approx. (3 tsps at the start of boiling + ½ tsp when you add ground masala)

Water                          500 ml

For grinding (to make huli thove powder):

Black gram dhal                      1 tsp

Bengal gram dhal                   1 tsp

Cinnamon                                1” piece

Khus Khus                                1 tsp

Coriander seeds                      1 tbsp

Red chillies                              5 or 6 nos.

Dry coconut                             100 gms

Cooked tomatoes                    3 nos. (to add to the ground powder)

For seasoning:

Ghee                            1 tsp

Mustard seeds                        ½ tsp

Red chillies                  2 nos.

Asafoetida                   A pinch

For garnishing

Coriander leaves

Directions

Wash dhal with water, drain and keep aside.

Wash ridge gourd, tomatoes, curry leaves and coriander leaves in salt water. Drain and keep aside.

Cook dhal in a pressure cooker along with water, tomatoes, turmeric powder and a dash of ghee.

While dhal is getting cooked….

Peel the skin of ridge gourd. Chop the vegetable into cubes. Keep the peels aside. They can be used for making Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney. (This recipe will be posted shortly)

Boil the chopped vegetables in a vessel along with water, salt, curry leaves and tamarind paste for about 10 min. till the vegetables become just soft. (Do not overboil)

While vegetable is boiling….

You can do dry frying. For this, first, grate the dry coconut.

Heat a medium sized kadai. Dry fry the grated dry coconut. Transfer it to a plate. Let it cool.

Now start dry frying the rest of the ingredients listed under “For grinding” one after another separately and keep transferring each of them to a plate. Let them cool thoroughly.

While it is cooling ….

Dhal would have got cooked, pressure in the cooker would have subsided. Vegetables would have boiled.

Mix them together and let it boil for 5 to 10 min.

While it is boiling….

Grind the dry fried ingredients (except dry coconut). Now add dry coconut and grind. Now add cooked tomatoes (and just a little quantity of water if required) and continue grinding  to a smooth consistency. Add this ground mixture to the boiling dhal and vegetables. Also add ½ tsp of salt. Continue boiling for another 5 to 10 min. By now, you can feel the “Ah, wow” smell!

Now is the time for seasoning…

For this, heat ghee in a small skillet. Put mustard seeds. When they crackle put broken red chillies and switch off the flame. Add asafoetida. Immediately pour it on to the boiling huli thove.

Garnish it with thoroughly washed and chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Ridge Gourd Huli Thove is now ready.

Note:

You can adjust the quantity of tamarind paste depending on the taste of tomatoes.

Few other names for Ridge Gourd are Heerekayi, Peerkangai, Torai and Sponge Gourd

Tur dhal is also known as pigeon pea

To make and store “Huli Thove Powder” for later use, dry fry and grind all ingredients listed under “Ingredients – For grinding” except cooked tomatoes.