Recipe-Dudhi Chana Dal Nu Shaak

This is one of the favourite dish of my grandfather. I also loved this dish minus the dudhi. As a child, I was a fussy eater. Still I am, but now I can try different cuisines and vegetables.

My husband was asking me to make channa dal for a long time. So I thought why not make a tried and tested combination. This is a healthy combination- dal is a rich source of protein and dudhi is rich in dietary fibres. Long list of health benefits of dudhi, so one should try to include it in our meals. 

This is a typical gujrati meal. Shaak is a guju word meaning sabzi in hindi and vegies in English. Dudhi means lauki in hindi and bottle gourd in English. It is bottle gourd curry. Adding some jaggery or sugar is a must if preparing in gujju style.

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup Split bengal gram (Chana dal), soaked for at least an hour

2 cups Bottle gourd (Dudhi, ghiya, lauki)

Water as per your requirement

1 Medium sized chopped tomatoes

1” Grated Ginger

2 Chopped green chillies

Salt to taste

1 TSP Oil

2-3 Curry leaves (optional)

¼ TSP Mustard seeds

1 TSP Cumin seeds

½ TSP Turmeric

½ TSP Red Chili powder

1 TSP Coriander powder

½ TSP Sugar or jaggery (optional)

How to make Dudhi Chana Daal Nu Shaak

1)      Rinse the dal with water 2-3 times. Soak in hot water for at least 60 mins. The longer you soak the lentils, it definitely reduces the cooking time but also helps in protein absorption in your body

2)      Drain the dal

3)      In a pressure cooker, add oil, when the oil is hot add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, allow it to splutter, now add curry leaves, ginger and chillies cook it for 30 seconds

4)      Add tomatoes and cook the mixture for a minute or two

5)      Add a turmeric, coriander, chilli powder and cook till the sides start leaving oil

6)      Add the dal, lauki and salt to this mixture and mix well. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add waterand pressure cook for 4 whistle on a medium flame. Allow the pressure cooker to depressurize naturally

7)      Add jaggery, then cook for another 2-5 minutes.

8)      Now taste. (If you feel anything missing, just add as per your liking and cook for a min or so. This is completely optional.)  

9)      Garnish this with fresh coriander leaves and serve piping hot with Roti or rice.

Variation

1)      As I am not very fond of eating dudhi, I made a variation with adding potatoes, carrots and peas instead of dudhi. I have omitted jaggery as I don’t like my food sweet. It served me as dal and sabzi both. I had it with rice, some pickle and curd.

 

 

 

2)      For dudhi nu shaak- do not add channa dal in step 6 and add one more cup of dudhi.