Northeast Indian
Lau Bhaji (Bottle Gourd Stir-fry with Dal)
Lau Bhaji (Bottle Gourd Stir-fry with Dal) is Northeast Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre and the cooked vegetable. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 3 cups bottle gourd
- 1/3 cup split yellow moong dal
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1/2 tsp panch phoron
- 1 green chili
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Dry roast the moong dal in a pan for a couple of minutes until it smells nutty, then set aside.
- Peel the bottle gourd and cut it into small cubes.
- Heat the mustard oil in a pot and let the panch phoron crackle for a few seconds.
- Add the gourd, roasted dal, turmeric, slit green chili, and salt, and stir to coat.
- Cover and cook over low heat, stirring now and then, until the gourd and dal are both soft, about 20 minutes, adding a splash of water if it catches.
- Uncover and let any extra liquid cook off before serving warm with rice.
Serve it with
A Northeast Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Lau Bhaji (Bottle Gourd Stir-fry with Dal), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The protein alongside
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What it is eaten with
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand. Lau Bhaji (Bottle Gourd Stir-fry with Dal) carries none of them. That is a checked answer rather than an ingredient list nobody read.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Light
- Protein
- Low
- Food groups it covers
- Vegetables and Pulses
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Lau Bhaji (Bottle Gourd Stir-fry with Dal) takes about 35 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on bottle gourd and moong dal.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from Northeast India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.