Ridge-gourd peels chutney

These days the dishes made out of peels are replacing my vegetable curries and I feel proud of myself for minimizing food wastage in this era of high inflation & food shortage.
The credit for this recipe actually goes to my bhabhi, who taught me this recipe & inspired me to make best out of waste.
Wash The ridge gourds (turai) thoroughly before peeling them. If you do not want to cook the vegetable & peels chutney on the same day then you can preserve the peels in an air-tight box or zipper bag for atleast two days.

Peels of 3 medium sized ridge gourd
4 flakes garlic
2 green chillies
2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1" piece of coconut
1/2 tsp tamarid paste(optional)
salt to taste

Heat oil and add cumin seeds.
Add the garlic pods, green chilli broken into 2 to 3 pieces and the peels. Saute until the peels are cooked  and soft for about 5 to 6 min.
Remove from the fire and put all the ingredients into a blender & grind into a smooth chutney.
Taste and check for the seasonings. Its a very spicy chutney for all those spice lovers!
If the green chillies are not hot enough you can even add 1/2 tsp of ground pepper to it.
Serve with hot steamed rice.

Cauliflower Stem Cutlets

Cutlets made out of the Cauliflower stems (middle part of green leaves)

1 cup boiled cauliflower stems, mashed
1 potato, mashed
5 to 6 spinach leaves, chopped
1 green chili chopped
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 tsp ginger chopped finely
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
oil to shallow fry

Mix all the ingredients to form a stiff dough. Use more cornflour if too moist. Shape into cutlets and shallow fry in moderately hot oil.

Other related recipes:
Cauliflower leaves curry
Beetroot Cutlets

Cauliflower leaves curry

In the process of minimizing food wastage, I am learning to re-use left-overs, syrups, sauces, chutneys into another recipe and the best part of all this is to use vegetable peels, stems and seeds and make an interesting & tasty dish out of it. This time when I bought a Cauliflower,I used leaves(only the green part torn from the stem in between)  to make a spicy side dish for my plain dal chawal, which everyone loved. I cut the stems into pieces & boiled in a pressure cooker for one whistle with the intention of making vegetable stock, but ended up using the liquid & some of the stems for my sambhar & remaining for cauliflower stem cutlets.

1 cup chopped cauliflower leaves
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
2 tsp ginger-garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp corriander seeds powder
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Heat oil in a pan, add onions, green chilli and saute until soft, add ginger garlic paste and saute again.
Add all the dry spices and cook for a minute. Now add tomatoes, greens, salt and 1/2 a cup of water
and cook covered for 10 minutes.

serve as a side dish with dal chawal.

Related Recipes:
Cauliflower stem Cutlets