Guide to Indian Grocery Store Vegetables: Ridged Gourd

Gourds are such a fascinating category of vegetables! They all belong to the cucurbitaceae family, like zucchini and squash.

Stuffed gourds are super delicious. Chunky bits of vegetables with a flavorful, delicious stuffing is great with some fluffy hot rice 🍚

Humans have found all sorts of uses for the mature gourds (vessels, musical instruments, household cleaning sponges).

Ridge Gourd is called:

Beerakaya in Telugu,
Peerkangai in Tamil,
Hirekayi in Kannada,
Peechinga in Malayalam

Ridge gourd is commercially grown for its unripe fruits as a vegetable. Mature fruits are used as natural cleaning sponges or luffas.

Its fruit slightly resembles a cucumber or zucchini with ridges which give it a beautiful crunch. Its availability ranges from central and eastern Asia to southeastern Asia.

Some common names include angled luffa, Chinese okra, dish cloth gourd, ridged gourd, sponge gourd, vegetable gourd, strainer vine, ribbed loofah, silky gourd, silk gourd, and sinkwa towelsponge.

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Love stuffing this vegetable with a blender-made paste of raw onion, Spicy Coconut PODI, ginger. A quick sautée in some mustard or sesame oil will add another layer of flavor! 🥥🌴 this vegetable cooks very easily because of its high water content and porosity. It's full of amazing micronutrients.