Lauki Ka Muthiya: Steamed Bottle Gourd Dumplings From Gujarat
Image Credit: YouTube @Ooru Oota Upahara - English

Lauki ki sabzi is a mood dampener for some people, but the right dishes and the right way of cooking the same veggie can make you reconsider your food choices. For instance, an extremely popular snack from Gujarat, Lauki ki Muthiya is a steam-cooked delicious snack. For the clueless, Gujarat’s Lauki Ki Muthiya is what Nuchinunde is to Karnataka. The recipe merely mixes and combines all the ingredients. This further involves balancing beautifully the assortment of wheat flour, gram flour, and rava with grated lauki, chillies and garlic-onion paste. While the flour and rava ensure firmness and tightness in the Muthiyas after they are steam-cooked, the blend of condiments, lemon juice and sugar enrich the taste in a great way. 

The Power Of Muthia

The word Muthia may sound interesting to some and it is, as it comes from the way of shaping these dumplings in muthi or fist. However, the central part of Gujarat, it's called Velaniya and Vaataa. Muthiya are vegan dishes that are steam-cooked and sometimes fried tempered with curry leaves and sesame seeds after steaming. The usual components of Muthia include chickpea flour, fenugreek, salt, turmeric, and chilli powder, with a slight inclusion of sugar, oil and lemon juice. 

Other kinds of Muthias are made with wheat flour and leafy vegetables such as amaranth, spinach, grated bottle gourd and bitter gourd. Some popularly made Muthias include Doodhi Muthia, Methi Muthia, Methi Jowar Muthia and Rasai Muthai made with bottle gourd, cabbage and carrots.

Preparation: 40 minutes

Cooking: 25-30 minutes

Servings: 7-8 pieces of Muthiyas

Ingredients:

  1. 500g bottle gourd
  2. 100g wheat flour 
  3. 100g rava 
  4. 100g gram flour
  5. Finely chopped coriander leaves
  6. ¼ tsp asafoetida
  7.  1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
  8. 4 finely chopped green chillies
  9. 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  10.  2 tsp sugar
  11. 1 tbsp olive oil
  12. Juice half a lemon
  13. A pinch of baking soda
  14. Salt to taste

For Roasting Muthiyas

  1. 2 tbsp oil
  2. 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
  3. A few curry leaves 
  4. Finely chopped coriander leaves

Method:

  1. Grate bottle gourd finely and transfer to a mixing bowl.
  2. Add wheat flour, rava and gram flour to the grated bottle gourd.
  3. Then add coriander leaves, asafoetida, ginger-garlic paste, finely chopped green chillies, turmeric powder and sugar to it.
  4. Incorporate oil, half a lemon, baking soda and salt into the grated bottle gourd.
  5. Combine everything well to make a soft and loose mixture. Do not add water in this process, but if the mixture becomes moist, add a little gram of flour to it to make it firm.
  6. Grease your hands with oil and give Muthiyas a cylindrical shape.
  7. Steam cook these muthiyas for 20-25 minutes. Take out and cut the Muthiyas in slices and keep them aside.
  8. For roasting them, heat oil in a pan, and add sesame seeds to it, and curry leaves to it.
  9. When sesame seeds turn brown add the muthiya slices to the oil and cook them until they turn light golden and crisp on both sides. Garnish them with coriander leaves when done.

You can skip sugar in the recipe if you like your snack to be only salty and spicy. One can also choose to eat just steam-cooked or flavour them by roasting them lightly in oil. These dumplings are a great option to incorporate bottle gourd in a more welcoming manner and a great idea for a tiffin meal.