Lau Bori – bottle gourd with sun dried lentil dumplings is a typical Bengali lau recipe. Flavourful and succulent bottle gourd cooked with tomato, grated ginger and simple spices and topped with crisp bodi is a light and refreshing dish.
Bottle gourd or calabash is a white-flowered gourd that goes by many names: opo squash, suzza melon, long melon, Tasmania bean and New Guinea bean. In India it’s known as lauki/ghiya in Hindi, Lau in Bengali, anapakaya in Telugu, dudhi in Gujarati and churakka in Malayalam. The light-green vegetable with white flesh is widely used in Indian cuisine
In Telugu, Vadayalu refres to Bori or Bodi.
Bottle gourd with bori or sun dried lentil dumpling is plain simple food – prepared with no onion-garlic and minus rich spices. Lau contains a lot of water and tastes delicious when had in summer.
Lau Bori Recipe:
Fresh bottle gourd with its pale green skin is such a lovely sight in summer – lau with its high water content helps cool you down and it’s a staple veggie in Bengali homes in summer.
Lau sabzi topped with crunchy boris is my favourite summer dish. Bori Diye Lau is easy to cook and best to serve with Steamed Rice.
- To make Lau Bori, firstly peel and chop the bottle gourd into small pieces.
- Also, finely chop the tomato, grate the ginger and slit the green chilli.
- Heat oil in a kadai and fry the bori/bodi/vadiyalu to nice golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon into a dish and keep aside.
- Again, to the same kadai add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick and cumin seeds. Allow to sizzle. Add the green chilli and grated ginger. Fry for a few seconds for the raw smell to disappear.
- Then put in the chopped tomatoes and cook until they turn mushy.
- After this, tip in the chopped lauki and stir.
- Sprinkle salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder and a pinch of sugar.
- Stir well, cover and cook, stirring occasionally till the bottle gourd is tender and the dish is almost dry. There’s no need to add water as fresh bottle gourd releases a lot of water.
- Lastly, add the fried bori / bodi / vadi and and mix well. Simmer the bori diye lau for a minute till all the ingredients nicely gel together and then remove from heat.
- Serve Lau Bori with white rice and dal.
If you are searching for some more refreshing gourd recipes, then do try out Jhinge Coconut.
Lauki Vadi Recipe details below:
Lau Bori Bengali Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups Lau/Bottle Gourd, chopped
- ⅓ cup Bori/dried lentil dumplings
- 1 Green chilli, slit
- 1 small Tomato, chopped
- ¼ tsp Ginger, grated
- 1 Bay leaf
- ½ inch Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp Cumin powder
- ⅛ tsp Red chilli powder
- ⅛ tsp Turmeric powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Oil
Instructions
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a sauté pan and fry the boris to a crunchy golden brown. Remove and keep aside.
- To the same oil, add bay leaf, cinnamon and cumin seeds. Saute for a few seconds.
- Add green chilli and grated ginger. Saute for half-a-minute.
- Add the tomatoes and fry till they turn soft.
- Add the chopped bottle gourd and mix well.
- Sprinkle cumin powder, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt and sugar. Combine well.
- Cover and simmer on low-medium heat till the bottle gourd is cooked through and all the moisture has evaporated. Fresh bottle gourd releases enough water to cook; otherwise you can add a little water.
- Add the fried boris, mix and remove from heat.
- Serve Bengali Lau Bori with white rice and dal.
Lau bori is my favorite. That is why every season we also grow bottle gourd and watching that plant growing and harvesting bottle gourd is real fun. We often make bottle gourd at home and enjoy fullest. I think almost every bengali like this dish very much.
Wow! That’s nice to know 🙂