Bottle gourd soup or lauki soup: a healthy and creamy soup made with lauki or bottle gourd, made Indian-style. Bottle gourd is known as lauki, dudhi, or ghia in Hindi, sorakai in Tamil, chorakka in Malayalam. Bottle gourd is commonly used in kootu and stir-fries in South India and lends itself really well for use as base in a soup.
Like all good intentions, I started a middle-of-the-year resolution to make and drink more healthy homemade soups, especially for dinner. Since I prefer soups with more body, I decided to start with a simple and healthy bottle gourd that also has some cooked moong dal to make it creamy. For flavour, I just added some roasted and crushed cumin and pepper. We loved the soup and I am planning to try a variation with carrot and tomatoes to add a bit more depth to the flavours.
Coming back to my resolution of drinking more soup, it was short-lived but I did get a good handful of recipes to store away from that time. This bottle gourd soup is possibly my favourite. The gourd adds a lovely depth and creaminess to the soup and moong dal is light, healthy, and easy on your stomach. Perfect for dinner with some bread or a salad.
I don’t have a lot of bottle gourd recipes yet in here but check out this lauki kofta recipe which is really yum. Also, if you are looking for an interesting soup recipe, check out the veg tom kha soup.
Bottle Gourd Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups peeled and cubed bottle gourd
- 3/4 cup moong dal
- 1/2 cup cubed onions
- 1 tsp minced garlic or 3-4 flakes of garlic
- 1 tsp roasted cumin seeds
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash, peel, and cube the bottle gourd. I used a pressure cooker to make the soup so didn't make the pieces or even or very small. If you plan to use a covered pan on the stovetop, then cut the bottle gourd into smaller pieces for quicker cooking
- Wash the moong dal and place in the pressure pan with about 1.5 cups water
- Add the cubed bottle gourd and onions along with the garlic to the pressure pan
- Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles. If you are cooking in a regular pot, simmer covered on low heat until the bottle gourd and moong dal are cooked soft
- Using an immersion blender, blend the ingredients until smooth. Add more water if the soup is too thick
- Add salt and lemon juice, mix well
- The seasoning I used is roasted and powdered cumin seeds with some freshly cracked black pepper. You can add as much as or as little as you'd like. Keep some to add just before serving
- Serve soup hot with some crusty bread or a side salad
Step by Step Bottle Gourd Soup Recipe
Wash, peel, and cube the bottle gourd. I used a pressure cooker to make the soup so didn’t make the pieces even or very small
Wash the moong dal and place in the pressure pan with about 1.5 cups water
Add the cubed bottle gourd and onions along with the garlic to the pressure pan
Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles. If you are cooking in a regular pot, simmer covered on low heat until the bottle gourd and moong dal are cooked soft
Using an immersion blender, blend the ingredients until smooth
Add more water if the soup is too thick
The seasoning I used is roasted and powdered cumin seeds with some freshly cracked black pepper
You can add as much as or as little as you’d like.
Serve bottle gourd soup hot with some crusty bread or a side salad.
Notes:
- You can add one green chilli to the bottle gourd and dal as they cook, this will give some extra flavour and heat to the soup
- Use red lentils (masoor dal) instead of moong dal for a different texture and  flavour
- Add some coriander leaves to the soup before blending, tastes awesome
- Add some crushed red chillies instead of pepper. TH likes this although I prefer pepper in my soups
- Add 1 tsp of butter or olive oil over the soup before serving, this enhances the flavour a lot. A pinch of sugar really helps too.
I tried this recipe today and was pleasantly surprised how creamy, yummy, simple yet nutritious this soup can be! We had it with homemade crusty bread and our tummies were happy as happy can be! Thank you so much for this recipe. My toddler son ate this soup with rice too, and that makes it even special. Thank you again. One thing for me to remember for next time, to add enough lemon. The lemon flavour was very important for us for this soup. I fell slightly short of it this time.
Thank you for reminding me I need to make this again soon too 🙂
loved it!
thank you!
Awesome recipr. ..thank you…please post the recipe of cauliflower soup without milk…take care…
will try to share cauliflower soup soon 🙂
Lovely! Loved this totally. Nice looking soup bowl.
thank you!
looks delicious. will surely try it during the weekend. one doubt can we blend them in a mixie? can we also season it with just the cumin powder?
Sure, you can definitely blend this in a mixie, just wait until it’s cooled down a bit. Yes of course, only cumin powder is fine too, it’s up to you. Please let me know when you try it 🙂