Lauki kofta recipe - kofta made from bottle gourd (lauki) and besan, then deep fried in the oil. These koftas are simmered in creamy, flavorful onion-tomato-yogurt gravy.
Lauki or bottle gourd is also known as Ghiya or doodhi or Dudhi or Opo squash. In this summer season, it is available in all Indian veggie market. It has more water content, so it is helpful to deal with the heat, and it prevents exhaustion in hot Indian summer.
Doodhi is a kind of vegetable that most of the people don’t like its taste. My husband doesn’t like any kind of gourds at all. So I have to be smart and tricky to include this vegetable in our diet. So instead of making sabji with chopped lauki, I hide them in the dish by grating it.
So I usually make lauki chana dal, muthia, thepla or soup and sometimes this kofta curry. He will eat these dishes without any complain.
The first time he tried the lauki kofta curry, I didn’t tell him that kofta is made from lauki. I just told him that this is mix veg kofta curry. He even didn’t realize that I was lying. The soft koftas with gravy will melt in your mouth. yes, if you have lauki hater in your family, make him/her this dish.
I have added some yogurt to the gravy which makes it little creamy and rich tasting. I have seen some recipes online; they use cashew paste or cream to make it creamy and rich. You can use any. But I find the yogurt as a healthy option.
Check out more curry recipes
Baby potato curry // Corn palak curry // Aloo chole // Okra curry
How to make Lauki kofta curry (Step by Step Photos):
1) Wash the bottle gourd, peel it and grate it using box grater. I have used 1 small sized lauki. Now measure the 1 ½ cups grated lauki. Then squeeze out the water as much as you can. Keep the lauki water, we need this nutritious water to make the gravy.
2) Take squeezed lauki and rest of the kofta ingredients (besan, cumin powder, red chili powder, salt, green chili, ginger paste, cilantro) in the bowl.
3) Mix all and make it like dough. It will be sticky. Increase or decrease the besan quantity as needed. All the ingredients should come together. It will depend on your lauki’s water content.
4) Meanwhile heat the oil in Kadai for deep frying. Grease your hand with some oil. Take small portion and make round balls.
5) By the time, oil should be hot enough to fry. Drop the kofta carefully into hot oil and fry it till they are golden brown from all the sides. Keep moving the koftas in between for even browning. Be careful. If oil is too hot then kofta will remain raw from inside. If oil is not that hot then kofta will absorb more oil.
6) Once koftas are brown from all the sides remove them on paper towel lined plate.
7) Take all the ingredients for paste (onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, green chili) in grinder.
8) Grind into a smooth paste and keep it aside.
9) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add whole spices (cloves, cardamom, cinnamon stick and bay leaf). Fry it for a minute or till you get nice aroma of the spices
10) Then add prepared ground paste.
11) Cook it till all the moisture evaporates and oil start to leave from the sides. Do stir in between and make sure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
12) Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt.
15) Mix it well and cook it for a minute.
16) Then add lauki water to make the gravy consistency
17) Lower the heat and then add whisked yogurt. We are lowering the heat, so yogurt will not curdle.
18) And immediately stir it well till everything is mixed. Now crank the heat to medium again and bring it to a boil.
19) Add garam masala and kasoori methi. Mix it well.
20) Add kofta, stir gently and serve.
Add the koftas right before the serving, otherwise kofta will absorb almost all the gravy and becomes soft and soggy.
Storing the curry: Best served the day it is made. If you want to store for next day, refrigerate kofta and gravy separately in containers. The next day, reheat the koftas in a microwave. Also reheat the gravy, you may need to adjust the gravy consistency by adding splash of water. Now add kofta to the gravy and serve right away.
Serving suggestion: Serve lauki kofta with paratha or naan or tandoori roti or phulka roti. It can be served with jeera rice or pulao like green peas pulao, vegetable pulao.
Lauki kofta curry recipe
Ingredients
For lauki kofta recipe:
- 1 ½ cups Lauki (bottle gourd or dudhi) grated
- ⅓ cup Besan (gram flour)
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon Red chili powder
- 1 Green chili chopped finely
- ½ teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- ⅓ cup Cilantro or coriander leaves chopped finely
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
To grind into paste
- 1 medium or 1 cup Red onion roughly chopped
- 2 medium or 1 ½ cups Tomato roughly chopped
- ½ inch Ginger chopped
- 1 Green chili
- 2 cloves Garlic
For Gravy:
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- 4 Cloves
- 2 Green cardamoms
- 1 inch Cinnamon stick
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon Red chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder
- Salt to taste
- ⅓ cup Plain yogurt (dahi or curd) whisked
- 1 ½ teaspoons Kasoori methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) lightly crushed
- ½ teaspoon Garam masala
Instructions
Making lauki kofta recipe:
- Wash the bottle gourd, peel it and grate it using box grater. I have used 1 medium sized lauki. Now measure the 1 ½ cups grated lauki. Then squeeze out the water as much as you can. Keep the lauki water, we need this nutritious water to make the gravy.
- Take squeezed lauki and rest of the kofta ingredients in the bowl.
- Mix all and make it like dough. It will be sticky. Increase or decrease the besan quantity as needed.
- Heat the oil in Kadai for deep frying.
- Grease your hand with some oil. Take small portion and make round balls.
- Drop the kofta carefully into hot oil and fry it till they are golden brown from all the sides. Keep moving the koftas in between for even browning.
- Once koftas are brown from all the sides remove them on paper towel lined plate.
Making paste:
- Take all the ingredients for paste in grinder.
- Grind into a smooth paste and keep it aside.
Making curry/gravy:
- Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add whole spices. Fry it for a minute
- Then add prepared ground paste. Cook it till all the moisture evaporates and oil start to leave from the sides. Do stir in between.
- Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Mix it well and cook it for a minute.
- Then add lauki water to make the gravy consistency
- Lower the heat and then add whisked yogurt.
- And immediately stir it well till everything is mixed.
- Now crank the heat to medium again and bring it to a boil.
- Add garam masala and kasoori methi. Mix it well.
- Add kofta, stir gently and serve.
hi thank you for sharing your recipe. i am from pakistan and can't wait to try your recipe. we don't make louki koftas here (we make beef kofta curry).
Welcome. Hope you like it.
I just made these and these were delicious ! We couldn't tell that these koftay were louki and the gravy was delicious too. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I forgot to ask, can I freeze these kofta after they're fried and then add them directly to the hot gravy and bring the gravy to a boil ? I was thinking of preparing a large batch, freezing both the gravy and the kofta separately to save time.
Glad to know that you liked this.
yes you can freeze the fried koftas and gravy separately.
You can add frozen kofta into simmering gravy and simmer till koftas are soft, hot and defrosted.
If you have time, best to defrost the koftas and add into gravy.
thanks !
Hi Kanan, thank you so much for putting such a wonderful recipe for lauki kofta! Your step-by-step pictures and details are beautiful, and really easy to follow. I just made this and it came out just divine. 🙂 Love your blog too! Please keep up the great work!
Thank you for your wonderful feedback. Happy to hear that it came out good.
hi kanan..u have made a perfect curry..love the way u work with so much cleanliness..will make them for sure..
Hey Namrata, how are you? I hear from you after a long time. 🙂 I am sure you will like this curry
Perfectly made..love the way you explained every little detail..great post
Thanks Preety.
Yummy kofta..Pass me some roti