What is Lauki Kofta?
Lauki kofta is a rich and delicious gravy with dumplings. This dish gets its name from 'Lauki', the Hindi term for Bottle gourd, and 'Kofta', which is dumpling in general. It is also known by some other names like 'Dudhi kofta' and 'Lauki ka kofta'. The dumplings are usually deep-fried or shallow-fried and served in a rich and creamy tomato onion sauce. 'Lauki kofta' is very similar to the dish 'Malai Kofta' posted earlier. The main differences are in the ingredients used in the dumplings or kofta (primarily potatoes and cheese in the latter).
Bottle gourd is the star ingredient of this dish. We got a good harvest of bottle gourds this season. It all started with one of my neighbors giving me a small sapling of the bottle gourd. We planted it in the kitchen garden bed. Never did I expect it to grow so rapidly climb over the backyard fence and patio and give such a huge yield. They were also really enormous, tender when cut, and tasted awesome in any dish. I distributed many of them to friends and neighbors.
More about bottle gourd (Lauki)
Did you know this humble vegetable is very healthy and has many benefits? Sources say Lauki or bottle gourd and its juice help in weight loss, relieve stress, help maintain a healthy heart by lowering cholesterol, cool the body, help stomach ailments, and keep urinary tract infections at bay. It is also rich in vitamins C, B, K, A, E, Iron, Folate, Potassium, and Manganese. Now, you have many great reasons to include them in your diet, isn't it?
How to cook Lauki?
I normally cook 'Lauki' or bottle gourd with lentils. Another way is to simply steam the diced bottle gourd with onions and green chilies with a hint of coconut oil and use it as a side dish. It can be also made into a spicy side dish with the addition of spices. I had heard a lot about 'Lauki Kofta' from blogger friends and others. This was not a dish that we made at my home, growing up. It looked very interesting and I had always wanted to try it out.
The regular dishes with the bottle gourd were getting repetitive and a tad boring. So I ventured to try it out. The Lauki kofta requires a little effort to make, especially to get the right consistency for the dumpling. Consistency is important so you can shape the dumpling without getting too sticky. The effort is however worth it. It is sure a great way to get picky eaters to include this nutritious vegetable in their diets!
How to make Lauki kofta sabji?
First, you start making the dumplings by peeling and grating the bottle gourd. Squeeze the extra water out and save it for later use. You can also add a little salt to the grated bottle gourd, so it automatically drains out all the water content. Next add the spices as in the recipe, gram flour, grated ginger, yogurt, a pinch of baking soda, and rice flour, and make round balls. The dough may get a little sticky, so increase the flour as necessary to get the right consistency and roll it into a ball. Apply some oil to your palms as well before rolling, so you can make round and neat balls. You can choose to deep fry or use an appe-pan to shallow fry.
How to make Lauki kofta gravy ?
To make 'Lauki kofta' gravy fry tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, and cashews. Grind them to a fine paste. Flavor the paste with spices, add the dumplings, and coat them well with the gravy. Add fresh cream and dried fenugreek leaves at the end and turn off the heat. You can also garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.
Please read on for the full recipe, ingredients, and steps to make this appetizing dish.
Lauki Kofta
Ingredients
For Kofta
- 2 cups bottle gourd peeled and grated
- 1 tsp yogurt
- ¼ cup coriander leaves chopped
- 1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
- ¼ cup rice flour
- ¼ cup bread crumbs optional
- 1 tsp ginger grated
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 pinch baking soda
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 2 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
For Gravy
- 1 big onion
- 2 medium tomatoes
- 2 tsp tomato paste optional
- ½ inch ginger
- 4-5 garlic
- 10 cashews
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ¼ tsp mango powder amchur powder (dried)
- ¼ tsp garam masala
- ¼ stick butter
- 2-3 tbsp whipping cream
- ½ tsp fenu greek leaves dried powdered
Instructions
To make Koftas
- Peel and grate the laukis into a bowl.
- Add a pinch of salt so it leaves out all the water , strain it well and use the drained water in the gravy later.
- To the grated bottle gourd , add all the ingredients mentioned in the "For Koftas" section.
- Mix well and add more chickpea flour or rice flour if the dough gets sticky .
- Grease a little oil on your palm and make smooth round balls with the dough.
- Shallow fry in the appe-pan with oil and cook well until they are well done.
- Drain on to a bowl lined with paper towel and keep aside.
To make gravy
- In a deep bottomed pan ,heat oil or butter
- Add chopped onions , tomatoes, ginger , garlic and cashews.
- Saute well till it is softened.
- Grind to a fine paste .
- Heat oil and add all the spices along with the garam masala, tomato onion paste and canned tomato paste if using.
- Adjust consistency to get a smooth gravy .You can use the water drained from the grated bottle gourd here if you like.
- Add the koftas into the gravy and cook on medium flame till they are coated well.
- Add cream and dried fenu greek leaves.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Nutrition
Hope you enjoyed reading about the Lauki Kofta recipe and will give this a try. If you make this dish, I would love to hear in the comments below how it turned out. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Pin Me!
I dont like Lauki too much but this recipe looks interesting. Would love to try it out.
Thanks for the comments, this is a great recipe with Lauki and pretty sure you will like it!
This sounds like a really tasty recipe. I haven't tried it before. I do love trying new foods x
Thank you so much, hope you try this recipe sometime and will love it as much as we do!
I love koftas, I grew up eating them, I liked the variation pretty close to this one and it was always with lentils too. It is very interesting how cousins can mix up and influence one other, having the same dish, even named the same name but with mother tongue twist in different corners of the world.
Wonderful to hear that and great to know that you make a variation close to this.I agree it's very interesting to see how various dishes around the world are influenced by one another.Thank you so much for the comments.
I have never heard of this recipe before but I like all of the ingredients! I have made kofta before and enjoyed them.
That's wonderful that you have enjoyed koftas before. The Lauki kofta is a different variety and am sure you will love this too. Thank you!
Oh wow this looks incrediblel! I've never tried Lauki kofta but love the sound of it, thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much!
A great way to incorporate Lauki. Love the koftas, looks very appetizing!!
Thank you so much Neetha, yes a great way to use the Lauki!
I will attempt to to cook following your recipe, look amazing!
Thank you hope you like it!
Wow! Lauki looks amazing and delicious! We don't have gourd in the supermarkets here but I think I saw them at the Asian supermarket last year or the year before.
Thank you so much, this time of year you get it in plenty especially in Asian stores.
I haven't tried this yet but it does look like an interesting meal. Seems like something I'd like. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much!
Yum! Looks and sounds like a delicious meal! Thanks for sharing that.
Thank you!
Looks so delicious
Thank you !
Most welcome
Can you just send me some? 🤣
Sure would be a pleasure to share 🙂 . Thank you!
Often children don't like lauki but your lauki kofta is an excellent recipe. Well shared thank you 🌹💓😊
Thank you Priti!
My pleasure 🤗💓