So Tejas brought home tindora last week. It is also called ivy gourd and a lot of other names I can’t remember right now. I absolutely love this vegetable.  He taught me a very simple method using just chili powder and turmeric, which is delicious, but I was in the mood for something a little sweet. I decided to make this Gujarati dal that my mother in law taught me and decided to try and find a tindora recipe could accompany it. I found a Gujarati version of tindora on Archana’s Kitchen and modified it here.

3-4 cups of tindora
1 tablespoon oil
salt to taste
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ coriander powder
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon amchur powder (mango powder)
1 small ball of jaggery
½ teaspoon mustard seed
½ teaspoon jeera (cumin)
4-5 curry leaves

1. Slice tindora lengthwise into quarters.
2. Heat oil in pan on high heat, add tindora, and stir constantly for a few minutes to get it started.
3. Lower heat to medium low, add salt and cook covered until tender stirring occasionally. Be careful, it can burn pretty easily.
4. Add turmeric, chili powder, coriander, amchur and jaggery.
5. For the tadka, heat the teaspoon of oil and add the mustard seeds, then the jeera, then the curry leaves.
6. Add to the tindora, stir and let the flavors meld a bit.

A few notes about this recipe:

• I like to stirfry tindora rather than steam it since I like it very dry.
• Even though the gourd is so small and even smaller sliced, it takes a surprisingly long time to cook.
• Tadka is a method of frying up spices to get them going. It can happen at the beginning or later on in the cooking. The mustard seeds should pop (they make a mess everywhere!) and everything should have a nice toasty smell.