Kovakkai Poriyal is a popular South Indian stir fry which is prepared almost in all house. Kovakkai (in Tamil) is nothing but ivy gourd (in English), tindora (in Hindi), Dondakaya (in Telugu). This small vegetable has so many health benefits in it. It is good practice to include this at least once in a week in our meal.
Kovakkai Poriyal is very simple to prepare with fewer ingredients and tastes awesome. This can be had as a side dish with rice, Onion Sambar, Paruppu Rasam, curd or can be had along with any Indian bread like Roti, Chapati. Here I have shown the easy method using the microwave. I almost use all gadgets in my kitchen to utilize time. Also as we cook in the microwave it takes only less oil compared with directly cooking on the kadai. You can cook as per your preference. But the method and time are same in both. Today let us see how to prepare this kovakkai poriyal without using the coconut.
- 350 gms Kovakkai/Ivy Gourd
- 2 tbsp Sambar powder
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 strand Curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp Mustard /kadugu
- 1 tsp Chana dal/kadalai paruppu
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds/Jeera
- Cut ivy gourd/tindora into thin rounds and set aside. In a microwave safe bowl add cut ivy gourd, turmeric powder, sambar powder, salt to taste, 2 to 3 tbsps of water. Mix all thoroughly.
- In the microwave cook the mix for 15 min on high. Mix in between 3 to 4 times. (If you don't want to use the microwave, after tempering add the above-said mix directly to kadai, close lid and cook for 15 mins. To fry in kadai, you need to add more oil.) Once ivy gourd mix is cooked well remove from microwave and set aside. Heat a pan add the ingredients under "To temper" one by one. Let them crackle.
- Then add cooked ivy gourd to the temper and fry for another 5 to 7 minutes till the ivy gourd fry turns golden brown and crisp. Crispy ivy gourd fry in ready to serve.
- You can either cut the ivy gourd in rounds or length wise. But make sure it is thinly sliced.
- I microwaved ivy gourd so that it will consume only less oil. You can even directly cook on the stove top, but make sure to add more oil.
- If you want it to be spicier add a tsp of chili powder along with sambar powder.
You might also like Spicy Potato Fry, Brinjal Pepper Fry, Potato Podimas.
Crispy and delicious Kovakkai Poriyal is ready to relish with rice and roti.
If you found this post useful, I would really love it if you pin it or share it with your Facebook fans or Twitter followers or Google+ circles today. All it takes is a simple click on the “pin it” “like,” “share,” “tweet,” or Google+ buttons below the post. It will keep me motivated. Thank you!
Leave a Reply