This lauki tamatar sabzi is one of the healthy vegetable side dishes that goes well with roti, paratha or khichdi. This is nutritious and satvik recipe that is made without onion and garlic.

Lauki tamatar sabzi in a bowl, garnished with cilantro.

❤️ About This Lauki Tamatar Recipe

This lauki tamatar recipe is one of the healthy summer recipe that should be added into your daily recipe rotation.

The consistency of the gravy is slightly on the thinner side as there is no starch in bottle gourd vegetable. If you prefer thicker version then reduce the amount of water or add some potatoes.

Taste: It has medium spicy taste with a slightly tangy flavor from tomatoes and lemon juice.

No onio No garlic: The gravy is made from tomatoes only with few basic spices. This lauki tamatar sabzi is a satvik recipe.

🧾 Ingredient Notes

Lauki (bottle gourd): Make sure that your lauki has soft, tiny and tender seeds inside. If the seeds are tough and mature then scoop out and discard.
Tomatoes: When it comes to Indian cooking, I prefer to use roma or plum tomatoes. Make sure to use ripe and sweet tomatoes. Unripe ones will make the gravy sour.
Lemon juice (or lime juice): Taste the gravy first and check the sourness from the tomatoes. Adjust the amount of lemon juice here or skip it.

👩‍🍳 How To Make Lauki Tamatar Sabzi? (Pics)

1) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add chopped green chilies and saute for 30-40 seconds.

2) Add tomatoes and cook until soft and almost mushy.

3) Add salt and spice powders (turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder).

4) Mix well and saute for a minute.

Collage of 4 steps showing tempering, cooking tomatoes, adding spices and mixing.

5) Add cubed lauki and water. Mix well.

6) Cover the pan with a lid. Cook until bottle gourd is soft and fork tender.

7) Do stir once or twice in between and make sure that there is enough water. If there is too much after cooking lauki then cranck the heat to high and let the excess water evaporate and make the desired gravy consistency.

8) Taste the gravy and check the sourness. Depending on that skip the lemon juice or add few drops of lemon juice. Mix and garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

Collage of 4 steps showing adding bottle gourd, cooking, adding lemon juice.

💭 Expert Tips For Lauki Tamatar Sabzi

How to make thick gravy?

Option 1: reduce the amount of water added here which makes a semi-thick gravy.
Option 2: Add a small cubed potato. After cooking mash few potato pieces using back of the spoon and simmer for 2-3 minutes. The potato will absorb most of the water and makes the gravy thick. If adding potato then you need to add little more spices to adjust the taste.

For a variation, you can try adding some garam masala at the end of cooking process.

Instant pot (pressure cooker) lauki tamatar recipe: Follow the same steps into the instant pot. Reduce the amount of water to ¼ cup only. Pressure cook on manual high pressure for 5-6 minutes. Once pin drops open the lid, taste and add lemon juice accordingly.

🍽 Serving Ideas For Lauki Tamatar

This lauki tamatar sabzi can be served with phulka roti or paratha. To complete the meal serve kachumber salad, dal, rice on the side.
This can be served with gujarati khichdi. This is our family favorite meal – khichdi, lauki tamatar, mango pickle and papad.

Lauki tamatar sabzi garnished with cilantro.

Check Out Other Lauki Recipes

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