Name: Sweet gourd, almond and plantain soup
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 2 thumbs of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 ripe plantain (it must be ripe, with a brown skin), peeled and thinly sliced; 1 sweet gourd; 6 tablespoons desiccated coconut; 400 ml coconut milk; small handful of coriander leaves; 2 white onions, sliced; 3 tablespoons tamarind paste; 1 drumstick, prepared as described, then gently bashed down its length and cut into 6 equal lengths; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; 2 teaspoons mustard seeds; 4 garlic cloves, sliced; 4½ tablespoons vegetable oil; 100 g chopped blanched almonds

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Vegetables

By Peter Gordon

Published 2007

About

Traditionally cooked in India with lentils, drumsticks – also known as horseradish tree or moringa – resemble very stiff long, thin cucumbers. Their ridged fibrous exterior needs to be peeled off, which is best done with a small sharp knife, as you would string runner beans. Sweet gourd resembles a ridged elongated cucumber. Its cousin, the bitter gourd, or kerala, needs to be salted before cooking to remove the bitterness, but sweet gourds are subtle and mellow You can replace the drumstic