Ridgegourd Rice – A mild yet delicious kids friendly lunch box rice recipe with ridgegourd sneaked in & with the delicate flavors of vaangi bath masala and garam masala. A vegan recipe that you can prepare easily during the busy mornings!
Lunch Box Recipes:
The school season has already begun here in India, and it’s about to start in the USA and other countries soon. Packing kid’s lunch is always a challenging task. I shared a few kiddo’s favorite lunch box recipes last year, and here I am back with another set of kids friendly lunch box recipes. Don’t miss to check out my A-Z lunch box recipes in my blog.
This week’s blogging marathon theme is “Kid’s friendly lunch box dishes, ” and as I mentioned above, I am going to share the ridgegourd rice recipe today.
Ridgegourd Rice:
The first recipe that I am going to share is the Peerkangai Sadam/Ridgegourd rice. It’s mild, yet delicious rice with the veggie sneaked in.
For these vegetable-based rice dishes, I always use vaangi baath and garam masala powder combination. It provides the required spice and flavor and makes it delectable. All you need to do is, do the tempering, cook the veggies with spice powder and finally add the rice and mix. That’s it.
Other Veggies to Use:
You can replace ridgegourd with your favorite vegetable. I usually prefer vegetables that get cooked quickly like Zucchini, Chayote Squash, Spinach, Snake gourd, Peas, etc. Once you have the veggies chopped and rice cooked, you can prepare this recipe in no time. If you have leftover rice, that works well for this recipe as well.
Meal Plan Tips:
- If you are planning to make this rice with ridgegourd, make sure you peel the ridgegourd and chop them well ahead.
- Cook the rice a day before.
How to Make Ridgegourd Rice?
Ingredients:
- Oil – 2 tbsps
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- Urad dal – 1 tsp
- Channa Dal – 1 tsp
- Red chili – 2
- Hing – ¼ tsp
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
- Onion – 1
- Ridgegourd – 4 cups
- Vaangi baath powder – 1.5 tsps
- Garam masala – ½ tsp
- Salt – 2 tsps
- Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
- Cooked Rice – 3 cups
Prep-Work:
- Wash and peel the ridgegourd and cut them into small pieces.
- Finely chop the onion.
- Cook the rice in your preferred way and set aside 3 cups and let it cool.
- Break the dried red chilies and set aside.
Steps:
- In a kadai heat the oil and add once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, and channa dal.
- As they start to splutter, add the broken red chilies, hing, and the curry leaves. Let it cook for a minute.
- At this stage, add the chopped onion and cook until translucent.
- Then add the chopped ridgegourd, turmeric powder, vaangi baath powder, garam masala, and salt.
- Mix it well and cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Do not add any water as ridgegourd oozes out water. After 4 minutes, remove the lid.
- Let it cook until all the water evaporates and remove it from the heat.
- Now add the cooked rice and mix well.
- Finally, add the chopped cilantro and serve hot with raita.
Notes:
- You can replace ridgegourd with your favorite vegetable.
- Instead of oil, you can do the tempering with ghee. But as I pack it for lunch, I go with oil. You can also add a dollop of ghee when you serve.
- Adjust the salt and spices as per your preference.
- When you are using water-rich veggies, do not add any water while cooking. If you are using vegetables like brinjal or okra, sprinkle some water.
Sending this recipe to BM#78. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM
Also sending this to Srivalli’s Kid’s Delight event, guest hosted by Priya Srinivasan, themed on Kids Lunch Box Recipes.
📖 Recipe
Ridgegourd Rice | Peerkangai Saadam
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Urad dal
- 1 tsp Channa dal
- 2 Red chili
- ¼ tsp Hing
- 10 Curry leaves
- 1 Onion finely chopped
- 4 cups Ridgegourd chopped
- 1.5 tsp Vaangi baath powder
- ½ tsp Garam masala
- 2 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 3 cups Rice Cooked
Instructions
Prep-Work
- Wash and peel the ridgegourd and cut them into small pieces.
- Finely chop the onion.
- Cook the rice in your preferred way and set aside 3 cups and let it cool.
- Break the dried red chilies and set aside.
Steps
- In a kadai heat the oil and add once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, and channa dal.
- As they start to splutter, add the broken red chilies, hing, and the curry leaves. Let it cook for a minute.
- At this stage, add the chopped onion and cook until translucent.
- Then add the chopped ridgegourd, turmeric powder, vaangi baath powder, garam masala, and salt.
- Mix it well and cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Do not add any water as ridgegourd oozes out water. After 4 minutes remove the lid.
- Let it cook until all the water evaporates and remove it from the heat.
- Now add the cooked rice and mix well.
- Finally, add the chopped cilantro and serve hot with raita.
Notes
- You can replace ridgegourd with your favorite vegetable.
- Instead of oil, you can do the tempering with ghee. But as I pack it for lunch, I go with oil. You can also add a dollop of ghee when you serve.
- Adjust the salt and spices as per your preference.
- When you are using water-rich veggies, do not add any water while cooking. If you are using veggies like brinjal or okra, sprinkle some water.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
when i saw the entry for kids delight i was delighted srividhya, i have made thogayal, kootu, dal with ridgegourd but never imagined a rice. i m definitely try this!!!
Pictures are so clean and crisp!thanks for sending it across to kids delight!
Thanks a lot Priya. Glad you liked it. :-)
I only tried this veg once and was not a fan but this is tempting me to maybe try it again!
Please do try Mir. I know its a hit or miss veggie.
I too like such quick fix rice varities for the lunch box. Will keep this in mind.
Thanks :-)
My girls are picky eaters when it comes to vegetables.But I am going to try this rice dish for me. Looks yummy.
Thanks a lot. :-)
This is interesting! Ridgegourd is always considered to be a boring vegetable, and this is a nice way to make kids eat it…
So true yeah. :-)
I usually add ridge gourd to khichdi. Also like the idea of adding it to rice with vangi bhat masala.
I usually add all the veggies in rice. But a great idea to add in kichadi as well.
I am not a big fan of ridge gourd. But, in this form it does sound inviting
yes, ridge gourd is one hit or miss vegetable. Thanks Jyoti.
wow!! Sometime back I had seen a similar recipe with tindora / ivy gourd. Interesting!!
Yeah… With tindora, we prepare kadala manoli rice. :-) That’s coming up soon as well. :-)
Never thought of ridge gourd rice. Healthy. Wanna try this immediately
Thanks pa.
we make ridgegourd in this fashion as a veggie, i would love to make a rice out of this
:-) Thanks
Its really wonderful that your son eats this rice, will have to try for my daughter!
Anything with bit of vaangi baath powder, he likes it. So I try sneak in bit of vegetables here and there.