Tindora Fry Recipe (North Indian Style)
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This North Indian-style tindora fry is a simple dish made with fresh tindora (Indian gourd) and a few basic Indian spices. Make it using my easy recipe and serve with dala nd rice or roti for a simple meal.
Here are some more sabzi recipes you can add to your everyday Indian-style meals: Hare tamatar ki sabzi, potato bhaji, besan bhindi, lauki ka bharta, and baingan methi.
Table of Contents
On most days, our lunch is sookhi sabji, dal, and roti. I make different sabjis to keep things interesting, and this North Indian-style tindora fry is one of the popular ones.
Tindora tastes bland and hence is a very good absorber of spice flavors. It has a little bit of crunch after cooking, so it is a good choice for folks who do not like the gooey consistency of cooked gourds. Do give it a try!
What Is Tindora Fry?
Tindora fry is a North Indian style dry sabji made with tindora. Fresh tindora is cut lengthwise and sir fried with a tempering of cumin seeds and curry leaves. Indian spices are added to give it a robust taste and the dish is finished with a squeeze of lime juice.
This dish has no onion and no garlic. It is cooked in one pan in about twenty minutes and eaten as a side dish with dal, roti, or rice.
In this dish, “fry” is not deep-fried. A fry or sukhi sabzi in Indian home cooking means the vegetable is cooked in a little oil until the moisture has evaporated and the spices cling to it. It gets dry and separate, with browned edges, not saucy.
Tindora is cooked differently in differnt parts of Indian. In Maharastra, it’s called tendli bhaji and is cooked with cashew nuts, fresh coconut and a hint of sugar. In Andhra, it is called dondakaya fry and is made with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
In this post, I am sharing the simple North Indian version, that is perfect for a simple homestyle lunch.
Ingredients
- Tindora (Kundru, Ivy Gourd) – Depending on where you are, this vegetable goes by different names. It’s called tindora and kundru in Hindi, tendli in Marathi and Gujarati, dondakaya in Telugu, kovakkai in Tamil, and kunduri in Bengali. Its botanical name is Coccinia grandis, and in English it is known as ivy gourd or scarlet gourd. It is two or three inches long, firm and bright green, with minute white seeds inside when young.
- Dried Red Chilies – These provide a slow, smoky heat rather than a sharp one. Use less if you are cooking for children.
- Green Chilies (Hari Mirch) – Slit, not chopped, so you can push them aside on the plate. You can use Serrano or Indian green chilies.
- Spice Powders – You will need regular spices such as coriander powder, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, garam masala powder, and salt.
- Oil – I personally like to make this sabji in mustard oil as it gives a sharper, more Northern character, but any neutral oil is fine.
- Others – To prepare this kundru fry, you will also need asafetida (hing), cumin seeds, lime juice, and curry leaves. If you don’t have lime, then amchoor (dried mango powder) will do just as well.
How to Buy and Store Tindora
Choose small to medium tindora (2 to 3 inches long) that are firm with smooth, glossy skin. Don’t use the wilted, wrinkled, soft-spotted ones. Their flesh should be white or pale green with tiny, tender seeds. If you cut open one and see red or orange inside with big seeds, it is overripe. It will be a little sweet and become mushy in the pan. Try not to use it.
Tindora is a faster-maturing gourd than most. It is best if used within three or four days of purchase. Store in the fridge in a paper bag, not a sealed plastic bag, to slow ripening.
How To Make Tindora Fry
Step 1: Wash and chop. Wash 250g of tindora and dry each one with a kitchen towel. Trim ¼ inch off each end of the tindora, then cut each tindora in half lengthwise.
Dry them properly. People rush through this step, but this is the one that determines the texture. Any water on the skin turns to steam instantly upon contact with the hot oil, and steamed tindora wilts rather than crisps at the edges. Cut the squash lengthwise, not crosswise, as thinner strips with more surface area will cook through in the same fifteen minutes and won’t be hard in the middle.
Step 2: Make the tadka. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 3-4 dried red chilies, ¼ teaspoon asafoetida, 1-2 slit green chilies, and 10-12 curry leaves, and let them sizzle for 4-5 seconds.
Step 3: Add the tindora and the spice powders. Add sliced tindora, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder, ½ teaspoon garam masala, and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix well to coat each piece.
Step 4: Cover and cook on low. Turn the heat down to low. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the tindora is tender. Stir a few times while cooking.
There is no need to add any water. Tindora releases plenty of moisture, enough to cook it.
Step 5: Finish with lime. Add 1 teaspoon of freshly squeezed lime juice. Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve warm.
Pro Tips By Neha
Slice each piece to an even thickness. The number one reason half the pan is mush and the other half is still crunchy is uneven quarters.
Use a large skillet. Piled-up tindora steams in its own vapor and never gets those browned edges. Spread it.
Do not add water. If it looks dry, turn the heat down even more and leave the lid on; the moisture is in the vegetable.
Don’t stir frequently. Any movement interrupts the contact between the hot metal and the vegetable. Leave it for four or five minutes at a time.
Skip the hing for a gluten-free version. Most commercial asafetida is mixed with wheat flour.
Variations
With potato. Add 1 small potato, cut into matchsticks the same size as the tindora in step 3. Cook a few minutes more.
With peanuts. Adding a tablespoon of roasted, coarsely crushed peanuts at the end gives a nice crunch and makes it more of a Maharashtrian tendli bhaji.
Air fryer. Add the spice powders and 1 teaspoon oil to the tindora in a bowl and toss well to combine. Air fry at 360 for 10 minutes and then at 390 for 8-10 minutes, shaking once. This results in a crisper, drier dish than the stovetop version and loses the tadka flavor, so it’s a different dish, not a shortcut.
Serving Suggestions
I serve this sabji with white urad dal, hot tawa parathas and a bowl of curd for a simple homestyle meal. You can also serve it with steamed rice.
Tindora fry is also a great dish to pack for lunch boxes with roti or paratha and pickle.
Storage Suggestions
Tindora fry is best eaten fresh but if you have leftovers, you can store them in an airtight conatiner in the freidge for 3-4 days.
To reheat, add a few drops of oil to the sabzi, spread it on a hot tawa, and toss for 2-3 minutes till it sizzles again. This bring back the texture. i do not recommend reheating it in a microwave as it will turn soft instead of crispy.
You can also freeze it for up to a month. Thaw it in the fridge overnight, then reheat it on a tawa and serve.
Tindora Fry FAQs
Yes, you can, but it won’t be crisp. The frozen tindora softens as it thaws and releases water. Cook it uncovered over slightly higher heat to evaporate excess moisture for a crispier sabzi.
I don’t recommend it. Tindora needs dry heat and room to lose moisture and pressure cooking does the opposite. If you have an Instant Pot, turn it on to the sauté function and make the sabji with the lid off.
Other North Indian Curry Recipes We Recommend
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Tindora Fry Recipe (North Indian Style)
Ingredients
- 250 grams tindora (ivy gourd)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 3-4 dry red chilies
- ¼ teaspoon asafetida (hing) (skip for gluten free)
- 1-2 green chilies (slit into half)
- 10-12 curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
Instructions
- Wash tindora with water and wipe with a kitchen cloth.
- Chop off ¼ inch of both ends and cut them into quarters lengthwise.
- Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds, dry red chilies, asafetida, green chilies, and curry leaves, and let them crackle for 4-5 seconds.
- Add the sliced tindora, coriander powder, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, garam masala powder, and salt, and mix well.
- Reduce the heat to low.
- Cover the pan and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the tinodra is cooked. Stir a few times while cooking.
- Add freshly squeezed lime juice and mix well.
- Check for salt and add more if needed. Serve hot.
I added ginger and garlic to it. Very simple and tasty receipe. Thankyou
I am used to having it cooked in its own water with a bit of onionn pepper and fried garlic & crushed ren chillie so must say it is tasty, different and simple with max prep+ cooktime of 30 min which is wonderful.Cheers
This looks really delicious! Though I m from Delhi, I’ve never tried tindora. I’ve seen these in the Indian grocery stores and I’ll definitely try this recipe soon.
Do try. It’s an everyday Indian Sabzi which tastes delicious too.
This looks so delicious 🙂