Zucchini curry (Indian style courgette curry)

Zucchini curry is a simple Indian style dish that goes well as a side in any meal. Serve it with plain rice, roti or even with bread, it tastes simply delicious. Made with pantry staples, this courgette curry is super quick to make & is a great way to use up any excess zucchini that’s hanging around in your fridge.

How is this made? This is no different from any other Indian curries. So the process starts with tempering the spices in oil and then sauteing onions.

Then tomatoes and zucchini are cooked for a short time. Lastly green peas are sauteed with them to bring out a mild sweet flavor.

This time I haven’t used coconut milk as I didn’t have. Sometimes I add a bit of it towards the end to have some gravy so it goes well with roti.

Preparation

1. Sometimes zucchini, just like cucumbers taste bitter for various reasons. The most effective way to remove the bitterness is to cut off the end of the zucchini (¾ inch slice). Rub it for a few minutes against the other part until a white froth like substance comes out. Repeat this on the other end as well.

2. Rinse well and taste it. If you still feel bitter, then you may slightly scrape the skin. After all this if you still taste it bitter, then it is good to discard it.

I prefer to keep the skin. If you don’t like then you may peel and then cube them. But the curry turns completely mushy.

How to make zucchini curry

3. Heat oil in a pan on a medium heat. Add mustard (optional) and cumin seeds.

4. When the seeds begin to crackle, add chopped ginger, chopped green chilies and curry leaves. If you do not have curry leaves & green chilies, you may skip them. You can replace ginger with garlic. Saute them until a nice smell comes out for about a minute.

5. Then add fine chopped onions and saute until they turn transparent.

6. Stir in salt, turmeric, chilli powder and garam masala. Saute for a minute.

7. Add chopped tomatoes.

8. Add chopped zucchini.

9. Saute them for 2 to 3 mins on a medium heat until the veggies begin to sweat.

10. Cover and cook on the lowest heat until tomatoes breakdown completely and zucchini turns slightly tender.

Note: Adjust the cook time to suit your taste. I prefer cooking them slightly softer but not mushy otherwise zucchini tastes very bland and will not absorb the flavors.

11. Add green peas and dried fenugreek leaves (optional). If you have, do add fenugreek it adds a lot of flavor here.

12. I prefer to cover and cook for another 1 to 2 mins. If you don’t like very soft zucchini, stir fry after adding peas instead of covering the pan. Taste test and add more salt & garam masala if needed. For extra heat you may add some crushed black pepper. Sprinkle coriander leaves.

You can stir in ¼ to ½ cup coconut milk for gravy.

Tips

• Choose young and smaller fresh looking zucchini.
• Adjust spices to suit your taste.
• Bell peppers & baby spinach also go well in this curry.

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