Chiranga Olan | Bottle Gourd Olan | Churakka Olan | Surakka Olan | Lauki Olan

When the family loves Olan, I try to sneak in as many kind of veggies as I can into it :) Cheranga as such is not liked by us, but Olan with it is an exception. We love it when the bottle gourd is paired with the mild coconut milk and the soft crunch from the boiled red eyed beans.. I have already made olan with Zucchini and Pumpkin & Ash Gourd and this one is no different from them. It is simple to make and healthy and yummy too :) So let's see how to make this easy Olan with bottle gourd..

Serves: 2-3 persons

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Soaking Time: 8 hours

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

I Used:

Cheranga/Bottle Gourd Red Eyed Beans/Vanpayar	- -	1 cup - cubed ¼ cup heaped (after boiling)
Green Chilly	-	2 nos - slited
Salt	-	As Needed
Coconut Milk	-	½ cup
Curry leaves	-	2 sprigs
Coconut Oil	-	1 tbsp

The Way:

1. Rinse and soak the vanpayar (red beans - I used 1/8 cup of the beans to soak) overnight for around 8 hours. In the morning, discard the water. Take the beans in a pressure cooker. Add enough water (around 2 cups) and salt and pressure cook till done. It took me 2 whistles in high and 2 in low. Keep aside

2. While they get cooked, extract the coconut milk and keep ready. I used around ½ cup of grated coconut and ¼ cup of water and ground it in a mixie till the coconut was smoothly ground. Then using a muslin cloth, extracted the milk from the ground coconut

3. Cut and discard the skin of the bottle gourd. Discard the thick pith if it's too ripe. Then cut them into thin cubes as shown in the picture. The thickness should not be more than ¼ inch along both width and length

4. Now take the cut pieces in a saucepan and add required salt and green chilly along with little water (¼ cup) (Instead of water you can also use 2nd coconut milk and boil the bottle gourd) and cook it till done. It will take around 15-20 minutes to get cooked

5. If there is excess water after cooking the bottle gourd, I remove them. Else the coconut milk becomes very thin

6. Add the cooked beans (a heaped ¼ cup) without water to the veggies. Give a gentle stir

7. Then add in the coconut milk and curry leaves and again give a gentle stir. Check the salt now. Add if required. Once the coconut milk is added, it should not boil. It should only get warm. And it would take about a minute or so. Switch off the flame. Add coconut oil and just swirl the pan

Transfer to the serving dish and serve along with rasam and pickle or as a dish in your Onam Sadhya leaf !

Cheers,
Chitz