Avantika's Kitchen Delights: Aloo Parwal dry sabzi

Parwal / Pointed gourd is a tropical vegetable that is grown throughout North and East of India. Pointed gourd plant is a perennial and is a creeper. This vegetable is known as Pointed Gourd in English, Parwal in Hindi, Pottol in Bengali, Parval in Gujarati, and it has many other names.

ALOO PARWAL DRY SABZI

PARWAL / POINTED GOURD

It looks similar to Ivy Gourd or Tindora and people often get confused between the two. However both are completely different in taste. Parwal is thicker and longer.

Young and fresh Parwal is bright green in colour and from inside it is whitish in colour. The seeds are very small and so tender. The Parwal that are mature are little yellowish from inside and have seeds that are hard. While shopping you may end up getting a mix of both young and mature Parwal pieces. You may discard the seeds of the mature Parwal pieces while chopping as they are hard to eat.

This vegetable can be cooked alone or with combinations of other vegetables.

Pointed gourd is a good source of vitamins and it has many other medicinal values like … it controls blood sugar levels, it controls cholesterol and keeps the heart healthy. Pointed gourd helps in improving digestion, treating constipation and losing weight. It purifies blood and fights with ageing.

This sabzi is liked and often cooked at my in - laws place and my hubby likes it too. So after marriage I started cooking this vegetable regularly. Before my marriage, I frankly never tried preparing this vegetable.

The Pointed Gourd / Parwal sabzi is very easy to prepare and here is a step by step recipe of this yummy sabzi. I prepared semi dry version of this sabzi using Aloo along with Parwal. I used onions and tomatoes also for preparing its semi dry gravy.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) Parwal 400 gms - Peeled and lengthwise sliced
(2) Potato - 4 small sized pieces, peeled and chopped into long slices
(3) Tomato - 1 medium sized piece , chopped in pieces
(4) Onion - 2 medium sized, coarsely chopped.
(5) Oil - 2 tablespoon (Vegetable oil or Mustard oil)
(6) Cumin seeds - half tea spoon
(7) Mustard seeds - half tea spoon
(8) Turmeric powder - half tea spoon
(9) Kashmiri Red Chilli powder - half tea spoon
(10) Coriander / Dhaniya powder - 1 tea spoon
(11) Cumin / Jeera powder - 1 tea spoon
(12) Garam masala powder - half tea spoon
(13) Salt to taste.

Cuisine - North Indian
Serves : 4 - 5 persons.
Time required : 25 mins ( 10 mins for preparation and 20 mins for cooking )

METHOD :

(1) This is a dry Aloo Parwal sabzi made by stir frying Onion, Tomato, Potato and Parwal.

(2) First rinse the Parwal thoroughly in water, cut the ends.

(3)Then peel off its skin using knife.

(4) Now cut the Parwal into half vertically as shown in the picture and remove the seeds from it. Clean all the Parwal like this and then start cutting them up and make slices lengthwise.

The lengthwise chopped slices of parwal is ready.

(5) Similarly cut the Potato into long slices.

POTATOES, peeled and chopped lengthwise

(6) Also cut Onions in long slices. We also take 3 whole red Chillies as given in the image.

Chopped Potatoes, Onions and 3 whole red Chillies

(7) Chop the Tomatoes as shown in the image.

(8) Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a kadhai / wok and add Cumin seeds (Jeera) and Mustard seeds (Rai). Let the seeds gets crackled. Add Onions and stir fry till it is translucent. Add the three whole red Chillies.

(9) Once the onions turn soft and slightly change colour, add Tomatoes. Cook the Tomatoes until they become soft.

(10) Add all the dry spice powders like Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Garam masala powder and Kashmiri red chillie powder.

(11) Add Ginger Garlic paste.

(12) Now add sliced Potato and Parwal. Both Parwal and Potato take almost same time to cook, hence we are adding them together. Mix well.

(13) After 3 mins add salt. Adding salt at this stage instead of later will accelerate the cooking process and the Potato and Parwal will get cooked faster.

(14) Mix the sabzi well and cover the lid of the kadhai / wok. Cook the aloo Parwal for 10 mins till the aloo and Parwal are properly cooked. Covering the lid will also cause the spices to blend well with aloo and Parwal. But in these 10 mins you will have to open the lid, stir the sabzi and cover again to ensure that the vegetables do not stick to the bottom. You may add a little water if the oil seems to be less.