Chayote Squash Salad

For those folks who do not know what a Chayote Squash is, here is a picture from one of the Google Searches. It is called as Seeme Badhanekayi in Kannada. I like the vegetable a lot especially if two items are prepared with it - Upma and Raita. So, as usual my wife (Priya) gets into the kitchen to make the night's dinner. It was tacitly understood that she would be preparing Papdi Lilva Sambhar and Rice. Now we needed some curry to eat along with the sambhar. So, Priya gets to chop the Squash. I jumped in and seized the moment - I told her, let's make raita with the squash instead of the plain curry. She agreed and continued to cut the vegetable. Needless to say we all enjoyed the food with the raita. Here is how you can prepare it too and enjoy then same...

Ingredients:
[1] Chayote Squash - 3 to 4
[2] Mustard seeds - 2 teaspoons
[3] Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
[4] Urad Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
[5] Chana Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
[6] Chillies - 4 to 5 depending on the level of hotness you want
[7] Coconut - 1/2 to 1 cup (I know the size of the cup is left to you, but still ...)
[8] Turmeric - a pinch
[9] Buttermilk - 2 cups
[10] Cilantro leaves - 1/2 a bunch finely chopped
[11] Ginger - a bite to taste
[12] Salt - to taste
[13] Water

Recipe:
[1] Start out by chopping the Squash into fine pieces
[2] Place the frying pan on medium flame. Add some oil and allow to heat for sometime
[3] Put in a teaspoon of mustard seeds to the heated oil and let it spatter
[4] Then put the chana dal and the urid dal and nicely stir to fry the dal. Make sure you don't burn the dal and believe me the urid dal is the one that gets black first :)
[5] After the dal has fried to brownish color, add the chopped the Squash and allow to cook
[6] Add some water and close the lid to make the cooking faster, but make sure you keep the flame in low heat as the high flame might burn your pan
[7] Stir occasionally until the Squash is cooked
[8] While the vegetable is getting cooked, prepare the raita masala
[9] Put the coconut in the mixer along with the chillies, cilantro, turmeric, ginger, cumin seeds, and mustard seeds. Add some water and nicely grind the mixture to make a fine puree
[10] Then add some buttermilk to that and mix well
[11] After the vegetable is cooked turn off the flame and allow to cool
[12] Once cooled, add the buttermilk mixture to the vegetable andmix well
[13] Add salt to taste and serve with chapati or rice

How does it look? Does it look like the picture below? If not then don't worry - just tinkle in to our home and we will make it and also serve it for you. What do you say?


Friends, hope you are enjoying my blog on Indian Vegetarian recipes...

Good night until tomorrow