Chayote Squash Kooru (Sambar)

I'm back after what seemed like a never ending break from blogging. The past weeks have been crazy with guests at home, attending a wedding in Cleveland and then more guests. Every time I logged into my reader and looked at other blog posts I would feel guilty for being unable to update my blog. Well finally the jinx has broken and I am back!

Chayote Squash (Seemebadnekai) also known as Chow-Chow is a vegetable that belongs to the Gourd family. As a kid I detested this vegetable as much as I possibly could much to the dismay of my grandmother who insisted we eat a variety of vegetables and fruits. I soon grew to like it, and as far as I can remember, my granny was the one who used this veggie more often than my mom. So there was no escaping this veggie esp in summers when we were over at granny's.

I learned to cook with this vegetable after I got married and discovered that one of hubby's fav sambars was the one with Chayote Squash. This is my mother in law's recipe.

Chayote Squash Kooru

You will need:

1 Cup Chayote squash, skinned and cubed
½ Cup Tuar Dal
1 tomato chopped
4 Cloves of garlic chopped (vary to suit taste)
1 tsp Cumin seeds
4 Green chillies slit
2 tsp Ghee
¼ tsp Asafoetida
½ Cup fresh coconut
2 tsp Poppy seeds (Khuskhus)

Soak the poppy seeds in hot water for 2 hours. Grind to a fine paste along with the fresh coconut.

Pressure cook the tuar dal, cubed squash, garlic and tomatoes with sufficient water. To this add the ground coconut paste and bring to a boil.

In a small pan heat ghee. Add the cumin seeds and when it begins to splutter add the green chillies and asafoetida. Saute for a few seconds. Add to this boiling dal. Season with salt and serve hot with rice.

A weeknight meal in minutes!