Dondakaya Perugu Pachadi ~ Ivy Gourd in Mustard Yogurt Dressing

Few years ago, during my first visit back to India, one of our aunts invited us for lunch. One of the items on the menu was dondakaya perugu pachadi and I liked it a lot. She chopped dondakaya and made raita or perugu pachadi with raw dondakaya. The crunchy raw vegetable in seasoned yogurt was mouthwatering! After coming back from my vacation, I forgot all about this pachadi. Two or three years ago, when I was on a guilt trip of not consuming enough calcium thru my diet, I was thinking of various ideas to make riatas and perugu pachadi. I remembered this pachadi and made it a few times. My pachadi was not as delicious as my aunt’s but it was palatable.  I have not made the pachadi since then and thanks to this marathon, here I am with this delicious perugu pachadi.

For the third day of the marathon, I am sharing this dondakaya perugu pachadi under the theme five or less ingredients. Ivy gourd is dondakaya & perugu is yogurt in telugu.

Ingredients:

1. 15 Dondakaya / Tindora / Ivy Gourd or 1 ½ cups Ivy Gourd cut into semi-circles
2. ½ small Red Onion chopped
3. 1 tsp. Mustard Powder
4. 1 cup Yogurt
5. Tempering & Seasoning
   • Salt to taste (approx. 1 tsp.)
   • 2 tsp. Oil
   • ½ tsp. Jeera
   • ½ tsp. Mustard Seeds
   • ½ Urad Dal
   • 3 Curry Leaves
   • 1 Red Chili (I normally don’t like to add red chili but  added for a good picture)
   • 3 Green Chilies deseeded and chopped (optional. You could either use red chilies or green)

Preparation:

• Wash ivy gourd and cut them into semi – circles or quarter-circles and chop the onion.
• Take ivy gourd & onion into a serving bowl. Add mustard powder, salt and mix well.
• Now add the yogurt. Taste it and adjust mustard powder & salt to your taste.
• In a pan take some oil for tempering. Oil is hot; add cumin, mustard and urad dal. When the seeds pop, add curry leaves, dry chili & green chilies. When the chilies are roasted, turn off the heat, add turmeric. Let the tempering cool.
• Add it to the pachadi. Serve it as a side dish with rice or roties.

If you like this pachadi, you may also like these raitas & perugu pachadis

Recipes posted this month in 2008, in 2009 and in 2010.

Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli’s blog.
Event Entries: This is my entry to Srivalli’s Condiment Mela