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LoginKundru Dishes To Try This Spring For Dinner
6 Min
27/04/20266 Min27/04/2026
Kundru sabzi can be interesting too, if you cook it well enough. It goes by a dozen names. It grows on vines in backyards across the country. Most people either love it or have an inexplicable aversion to it. But kundru, also known as tindora, tendli, kovakkai, and dondakaya, is one of those vegetables that, once you start cooking with it properly, quietly becomes a household staple.
Kundru is a crunchy vegetable with a slightly tangy taste that grows on a vine in tropical weather. Eating seasonally is the best wisdom, and kundru is quite the affordable spring vegetable that is healthy and available in abundance. Research suggests that consuming it regularly may help keep blood sugar in check, and it is rich in fibre, B vitamins, protein, and minerals. And yet, for all its nutritional value and culinary uses, it rarely gets the spotlight it deserves. Spring, with its transitional warmth and appetite for lighter meals, is the perfect season to make that change. Here are some kundru dishes that span Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and more, worth adding to your dinner rotation.
The most straightforward dish made with kundru is this simple stir-fry. It’s a North Indian-style preparation that is spicy and typically served for everyday meals with rice or roti. The kundru is first sliced into quarters, then cooked with a tempering of cumin seeds, dried red chillies, asafoetida, green chillies, and curry leaves. Coriander powder, turmeric, Kashmiri red chilli powder, and garam masala make the entire dish get its signature flavour. This one might be the dreaded kundru ki sabzi, but you can customise it to your liking.
Head south, and the approach shifts entirely, so does the name. The Tamilians know kundru as kovakkai, and kundru sabzi becomes kavakkai poriyal. It is most commonly prepared as a quick stir-fry or side dish. The Tamil Nadu-style kovakkai fry is defined by its tempering of mustard seeds crackling in hot oil, fresh curry leaves, red chillies, urad dal, and sliced kovakkai frying. Asafoetida, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, and coriander powder, along with chopped onions, give the dish its characteristic spicy flavour. Sometimes, freshly grated coconut makes it truly exceptional.
Another stir-fry dish, the Maharashtrian version is the ultimate comfort food in many Marathi homes, which is served with bhakri or roti and also steamed rice and dal, for a simple yet satisfying meal. The tondli is cut width-wise, into rounds that feature roasted peanuts that are sprinkled into the stir fry. The cumin and mustard seeds are crackled with garlic and green chillies added. The vegetable goes in next, and turmeric powder plus salt is added and cooked. After the tendli softens a bit, red chilli powder and the crushed peanuts are added and mixed in.
Tone down the flavour of kundru ki sabzi by adding potatoes to it and turning it into a Gujarati-style dish. Tendli batata nu shaak is quite simple to make, and is an everyday Gujarati dry sabzi made with ivy gourd (tendli) and potatoes, cooked with simple spices like mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric, and chilli powder. The dish barely uses many ingredients but delivers on flavour, with a bit of sweetness, typical of Gujarati cooking. It is finished off with fresh coriander garnish. It’s typically served hot as part of a traditional meal alongside roti, dal, rice, and buttermilk.
The Goan version diverges from the Maharashtrian one and adds coconut to it. Goan tendli chi bhaji is a flavour-packed stir-fry made with ivy gourd and topped with freshly grated coconut, which is a staple in Goan cuisine, often paired with rice and Goan dal (varan). The use of coconut, curry leaves, and green chillies is what makes this kundru sabzi recipe so delicious. It starts with tempering of mustard seeds and cumin, followed by onions, then cooking the tindora with curry leaves, red chilli, turmeric and coriander powder, salt. Coconut is added last and tossed.
A mixed rice dish, tendli bhaat, is a fragrant Maharashtrian one-pot dish where ivy gourd is cooked with rice and a mix of whole spices and the state's special goda masala. The dish stands out for its slightly nutty, mildly sweet-spicy flavour profile, often enriched by adding fresh coconut and coriander. The rice has separate, fluffy grains which soak up the masala, making it both comforting and festive. It is commonly served to guests or enjoyed as a standalone meal with raita on the side.
Another Gujarati dish, this kundru sabzi is a mixed stuffed vegetable dish that uses tendli, brinjal, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, some of which might be stuffed and some added chopped, to the dish. The filling is usually made with a mixture of coconut, peanuts, sesame seeds, coriander, chillies, some masalas, and gram flour. Often cooked in a pressure cooker, the vegetables absorb the flavours of the stuffing, resulting in a dish that is sweet, spicy, and earthy. It’s a popular choice for comforting yet hearty home-style meals and is known for its layered flavours.
Kundru rarely makes it onto restaurant menus or trending food lists. It doesn't even get the grace of being photographed in many cases. But it has been feeding and nourishing Indian families, from Goa’s coastline to Gujarat's heartland to Tamil Nadu's kitchens, for generations, in different ways and different languages. This spring, let this tiny gourd earn its place in yours.
