Instant Pot Lauki Curry (Bottle Gourd Curry)
Dec 09, 2020
Lauki curry- a simple vegan Indian curry made with bottle gourd, tomatoes, ginger and spices! Pairs well with rice, quinoa or flatbreads.
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Easy Lauki Curry (bottle gourd curry) made in the Instant Pot!
One pot, vegan and gluten-free, this gets done in 30 minutes or less.
Lauki (bottle gourd) is not a very known or popular vegetable around here in the US. But growing up in India, it was one of the most common vegetables.
It was made often in my house but no one was really fond of it, my brothers especially disliked it. I liked it, I mean it wasn’t my favorite vegetable but I would happily eat it. The dry version was especially my favorite.
And of course I loved lauki kheer and lauki halwa!
Now, I don’t cook with it that often since here you can only find it any Indian stores and I don’t get veggies from Indian stores that often.
Lauki is very similar to zucchini except it’s firmer in texture. It’s a type of squash (opo squash) but I prefer the taste of lauki a lot more. I think it has to do with me growing up eating lauki not zucchini.
Bottle gourd is actually very healthy, super low in fat, low calories and good source of dietary fiber. I remember listening to stories of people drinking lauki ka juice to lose weight.
So, the other day, I got a very nice lauki from the Indian store recently and made this lauki curry or lauki ki sabzi in the Instant Pot.
When I was a kid, I remember I always preferred drier sabzis, I didn’t like the ones with curry that much. But now of course preferences have changed and I enjoy them just as much.
This curry was so easy to make in the Instant Pot, it literally took me like 10 minutes to put this all together.
This Instant Pot Lauki Curry
✔is vegan, nut-free and can be made gluten-free.
✔made without onions or garlic.
✔easy curry which requires prep time of 10 minutes or less.
✔goes well with rice, quinoa or flatbread.
This recipe is really easy to make, the main prep work required is to dice the lauki and puree the tomatoes.
Once that’s done, it takes less than 5 minutes to put it to pressure cook.
Let’s talk about all the ingredients that go into it.
Lauki/bottle gourd: this is of course the main ingredient for this recipe. You can find lauki at all Indian grocery stores.
Peel and then dice it into 1/2 inch pieces, the lauki that I used was medium in size around 550 grams.
Sometimes there are a lot of seeds inside the lauki, so in the case the one you have has that, remove the seeds as well. The one that I used had only few seeds so I let it be.
Remember to cut them into bigger pieces like 1/2 inch or more else they might be too soft after pressure cooking.
Tomatoes: this forms the base of the curry, I pureed them in a blender and then used in the recipe,
Ginger: I love the addition of ginger here, you can even use garlic even though I skipped it.
Spices: for the spices I have used coriander powder, fennel powder, amchur, turmeric and kashmiri red chili powder (which had mild flavor and used mainly for heat.
This recipe turned out a little spicier than my usual recipes. You can definitely tone it down (please check instructions below).
If you want, you can definitely use onions here. I would sauté them in oil after adding cumin seeds and then cook them for around 2 minutes until softened before adding the tomato puree.
Serving Suggestions
Serve this lauki curry with rice, quinoa or with roti.
I enjoyed this with my matar quinoa.
Method
1- To a blender add tomatoes, ginger and green chili.
2- Puree to a smooth paste and set aside.
3- Press the sauté button on the Instant Pot. Once it displays hot, add the oil and then add the cumin seeds. Let the sizzle for few seconds and then add dried red chili (if using) and hing. Sauté few seconds.
4- Then add the prepare tomato-ginger-chili puree. Stir well and then add the spices- coriander powder, turmeric powder, fennel powder, amchur, kashmiri red chili powder and salt. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.
5- Add in the chopped lauki (1/2 inch pieces) and stir.
6- Add 1 cup water and mix.
7- Close the pot with lid. Cook on high pressure for 6 minutes with the pressure valve in the sealing position. Let the pressure release naturally.
8- Open the lid and add chopped cilantro. Add additional water (1/4 to 1/2 cup) if the curry looks too thick for your liking. I did add around 1/4 cup extra water here. The curry does thicken as it cools so it’s a good idea to add some water here.
Serve this lauki curry warm with rice, quinoa or rotis!
If you’ve tried this Instant Pot Lauki Curry Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!
Instant Pot Lauki Curry
Ingredients
- 3 medium tomatoes 310 grams
- 1 inch ginger 11 grams
- 1 green chili
- 1 tablespoon oil 15 ml, use oil of choice
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 dried red chili skip to tone down the heat
- 1/4 teaspoon hing asafetida
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel powder
- 1/2 teaspoon amchur dried mango powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder or use 1/4 teaspoon to tone down the heat although this chili powder is mild and used for color
- 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 medium lauki (bottle gourd) 550 grams, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, around 4 cups of 1/2 inch diced lauki pieces
- 1 cup water 8 oz + more as needed
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Instructions
- To a blender add tomatoes, ginger and green chili. Puree to a smooth paste and set aside.
- Press the sauté button on the Instant Pot. Once it displays hot, add the oil and then add the cumin seeds. Let the sizzle for few seconds and then add dried red chili (if using) and hing. Sauté few seconds.
- Then add the prepare tomato-ginger-chili puree. Stir well and then add the spices- coriander powder, turmeric powder, fennel powder, amchur, kashmiri red chili powder and salt. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add in the chopped lauki (1/2 inch pieces) and stir followed by 1 cup (8 oz) water and mix.
- Close the pot with lid. Cook on high pressure for 6 minutes with the pressure valve in the sealing position. Let the pressure release naturally.
- Open the lid and add chopped cilantro. Add additional water (1/4 to 1/2 cup) if the curry looks too thick for your liking. I did add around 1/4 cup extra water here. The curry does thicken as it cools so it's a good idea to add some water here.Serve this lauki curry warm with rice, quinoa or rotis!
Notes
- Use gluten-free hing to make this recipe gluten-free or skip it.
- Adjust spice levels to taste.
- The curry does thicken as it cools so add little water after it's pressure cooked.
- You can use the same recipe with zucchini, pressure cook for 1-2 minutes only and quick release the pressure.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How do you make vegetarian noodle soup on instant pot?
I don’t have a recipe on my blog yet
Can I add aloo? So yummy ! How long would this be in instant pot ?
try this recipe for aloo sabzi: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/dhaba-style-aloo-rasedar-instant-pot/
Bahoot badiya! Bahoot badiya!
Looks delicious! Can I use zucchini instead? And what changes would this require to the recipe?
please read the notes in the recipe card, already mentioned
Thank you! Sorry I missed the note on zucchini. Looking forward to trying this today..