A Tamil Nadu lunch thali or full meals is incomplete without a kootu. Here is a popular yet simple Tamil Nadu style chow chow kootu or the chayote squash kootu prepared with freshly ground spices.

Last month I posted a cabbage kootu recipe without any fresh spice mix. Now it’s time for chow chow kootu but with a freshly ground spice mix. I have already posted another chow chow kootu recipe made in Instant Pot without coconut. The spice mix is slightly different. Do check it out.

I can hear you asking how many kootu recipes will I post. Sorry folks, I don’t know. Guess what; I have one more kootu coming up! I don’t know how many kootu recipes are too many kootu recipes. :-) If you notice, most of the kootus are vegan and skip asafoetida to make it gluten-free.

Now coming to this recipe, I made this in the stove-top pressure cooker using the stackable pans. We were making the kootu as a part of lunch thali. So this is how we cooked rice, veggies for kootu, dal for rasam, and plantain flower for usili (I will be posting this recipe as well) using stackable pans.

As much as I love my Instant Pot, I love both my 3L and 10L stove-top pressure cookers as well. And yeah, the stackable containers as well. :-)

What is chayote squash, and how to cook it?

This green-pear shaped vegetable belongs to the “gourd” family. (All the while I thought it belonged to squash family) . It is known as seema badanekayi in Kannada, Sheema katharikai in Malayalam, and seema vankaya in Telugu. (referred here)
You can find a lot of South Indian recipes with this vegetable. I love to add it in my sambar, and I also make dry saute/poriyal with it. All you need to do is steam the veggie and add the tempering. You can also make chutney with chow chow. But nothing can beat chayote gravy/kootu.

Depending upon the variety, the texture of the skin varies. I always peel the skin. If I am making sambar, I chop it into big pieces; if not, I cut into cubes for both dry saute and this kootu. You can peel and chop this vegetable well ahead, and the cut vegetables stay good for a week.

Kootu always involves three main steps-

Pressure cook the dal and the veggie
Prepare the fresh spice mix
Combine and cook the cooked dal-veggie and the spice mix and do the tempering.

How to cook chayote squash and dal for this kootu?

Every family has a unique style for preparing the kootu. Today I am sharing my MIL’s version.

She usually cooks the dal and vegetables together, along with salt and turmeric. But my mom cooks them separately, and she adds salt at the later stage, and she skips turmeric sometimes. There is not a set way or order. Do it the way that works for you.

Ok, coming to the cooking part, we cooked the dal and veggie in the pressure cooker stackable pan. Make sure to add the dal in the bottom, followed by water and then the vegetable.

But as you can see from the picture, I missed it. I added the veggie, salt, and turmeric and completely forgot the dal. I did not want to remove the vegetable, so I ended up adding it to the top.

As expected, the dal partially done. Sometimes mistakes happen and don’t worry. Most every-day South Indian recipes are customizable, and they are super forgiving. I transferred the dal and veggie to a pan and cooked further for ten more minutes so that the dal can be mushy and soft. And it did. Look at the picture below.

I was contemplating if I should post this recipe or not, but then I decided to post it. Mistakes do happen, and I wanted to share it.

Tempering the kootu-

As we steamed the veggie in a stackable pan, we had to transfer it to another pot for further cooking. Also, we did the tempering in the end as we had to temper the other dishes as well. You can temper the kootu in the beginning or separately as well. Please check the recipe notes for the one-pot kootu recipe. You can add curry leaves and cilantro for additional flavor but we did not add both. I just used cilantro as a garnish.

As always, I wrote a lot. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments. Now without any further ado, here is the recipe.

How to make chayote squash / chow-chow kootu?

Cooking the dal and chow chow in the pressure cooker:

In a pressure cooker or a pressure cooker stackable pan, add the chopped vegetables, moong dal, ground turmeric, salt, and water. Please read the notes above regarding adding the water and moong dal. Make sure to add the dal first, then the water followed by the vegetables, turmeric, and salt.
Pressure cook for three hisses or whistles. Let the pressure subside and take the veggies and dal out. (Please check recipe notes for making it as one pot kootu)

Preparing the spice paste-

You can do this parallelly when the veggies are cooking. In a mixer jar, add the coconut, dried red chilies, and cumin seeds.
Add about 1/2 cup of water and grind into a paste. Set it aside. And rinse the mixer jar with 1/4 cup of water and reserve that water as well.

Preparing the kootu and tempering-

In a pan or kadai, add the cooked vegetable along with dal. Do not drain the water and add the water as well.
I let this vegetable-dal mix to cook for 10 minutes over medium heat so that the moong dal can become soft. If your moong dal is soft and mushy, then bring it to a boil or cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Now add the ground paste and 1/4 cup of the reserved water. Check for salt at this stage and adjust as required.

Bring it one a boil and turn off the heat.

In a separate tempering pan, heat the coconut oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida, and curry leaves, if using. We did not use it. When the mustard seeds start to sputter, turn off the heat and add it to the kootu.

You can relish the kootu just with rice and pickle or chips or serve it as a side with rice, rasam or rice and sambar.

Recipe Notes-

Like I mentioned before, you can do the tempering at the beginning or temper separately and add it.
Adjust the red chilies and salt according to your preference.
And the same goes for cumin seeds as well. I usually add more cumin seeds, but my MIL’s version has a subtle flavor. You can go up to 1.5 tbsp for this measure, but not more than that.
You can replace chow chow with ridgegourd, bottle gourd, ashgourd, snake gourd. If you use these veggies, the timing remains the same. For zucchini and cucumber, you don’t need to pressure cook the dal. I have a cucumber kootu recipe coming soon.
One-Pot Kootu:
You can make this as a one-pot kootu or pressure cooker kootu as well. First, do the tempering in the pressure pan. Then add the veggie, dal, salt, ground turmeric and pressure cook for three whistles. Let the pressure subside and mix the dal-veggie thoroughly. Add the ground paste and bring this mix to a boil in the pressure cooker itself. For more flavor, drizzle 1 tsp of coconut oil after turning the heat off.

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If you like this kootu recipe, then do check out other kootu recipes here.

Update Notes: This recipe was originally posted in 2013 but now updated with new photos and step-wise pictures.

Chow Chow Kootu | Chayote Squash Kootu | Chayote Squash Gravy/Stew