Monsoon Vegetables Spotlight: Delicious Gongura Recipes From

Gongura Pachadi

To Gongura Chicken

Quick Summary

It’s often said to avoid leafy greens during monsoons, but certain kinds like gongura leaves are one of the rare greens Indian households actively look forward to during the monsoon, rather than avoid. Gongura’s leaves sour during the hot summer months, which continue in monsoon, and this works in its favour. With other greens, pests and contamination are a concern, and its acidic leaves grow taller than many, are away from ground microbes, and also get washed during the rains.

Deep Dive

During Chaturmaasya, the four-month monsoon period, leafy greens are traditionally avoided altogether since the earth is considered fertile and plants growing close to the ground are seen as more prone to contamination. Gongura is the exception that gets specifically called out for this rule. It’s all thanks to the sorrel leaves’ sourness and hardiness as compared to other leafy greens, like spinach or amaranth. Each leafy green has its season, and monsoons are for sorrel leaves, which is why it shows up in a variety of preparations across India during these months.

Known as gongura in Telugu, pulicha keerai in Tamil Nadu, ambadi in Maharashtra, and pundi soppu in Karnataka, this tangy, hibiscus-family leaf is used to make everything from a fiery pickle to a full-blown biryani. The leaf is mainly available during the monsoon and post-monsoon months, and it's woven so deeply into Telugu festivals and celebrations that no major Andhra occasion feels complete without a gongura dish on the table. The same plant turns up as sougri in Manipur, cooked into a shrimp-based kangsoi, a preparation that Imphal home cooks still make with fresh gongura leaves during the rainy season.

Gongura Pachadi

This dish is the easiest and the most widespread version of the sorrel leaves. Gongura pachadi is a tangy, spicy chutney-pickle hybrid that anchors an Andhra meal. It's a staple in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, made with red sorrel leaves, dried red chillies, garlic, and cumin seeds, in a region where these leaves grow in abundance. There are two versions of this monsoon food, worth knowing:

• Fresh pachadi: cooked while the leaves are still moist, ground soft, and best eaten within a week or two

• Nilava (stored) pachadi: the leaves are air-dried first, then cooked in far more oil and salt, giving it a thick, spoonable texture that keeps for months since very little water is left in the leaf; the salt draws out what remains, and a layer of oil on top keeps air away from the surface.

Both versions use the red-stemmed variety of gongura, which is considered sourer than the green-stemmed one.

Gongura Pappu

No regional Indian cuisine is complete without a dal, and gongura pappu is Andhra Pradesh and Telangana’s answer to that, using sorrel leaves. It is one of the lowest-effort dishes out there, made with lentils (kandi pappu or toor dal) cooked with gongura leaves, spices, and curry leaves. Like most leafy greens, the sorrel leaves go towards the end, so they don’t turn into mush or turn the dal too sour. Sometimes masoor dal and chana dal are added to it for texture. This dal is prized for its ease of preparation and health benefits. Like any true South Indian-style dish, this has a tempering of mustard seeds, cumin, and dried red chillies. Locals love to pour this dal over steamed, hot rice, with ghee and a spicy pickle on the side.

Gongura Thogayal

In Tamil Nadu's Kongunadu belt, gongura leaves are known as pulicha keerai and are made into a coarse, oil-cooked relish that locals call both thogayal and thokku interchangeably. It layers the sorrel leaves, with the stems removed, with several rounds of separately roasted lentils and spices before grinding it into a coarse paste. True to Kongunadu cuisine, it uses gingelly oil, with the sorrel leaves prepared first, followed by the dals – urad dal, chana dal, and toor dal – dry-roasted separately. There is also a medley of spices like coriander seeds, black peppercorns, methi (fenugreek) seeds, dried red chillies (Guntur), and tamarind. It is finished off with a tempering of mustard seeds, asafoetida, jaggery, and salt.

Gongura Mamsam

‘Mamsam’ means meat in Telugu and almost always refers to goat here, with the dish built around gongura leaves that are cooked into a green-brown paste, while the mutton is slow-cooked separately. The two meet when both are ready, in one pot, and this separation is what gives the mutton curry its rich flavour. Most mutton curries get their body and richness from tomato and onion, but gongura mamsam replaces that base entirely with the cooked-down leaf, so the tanginess of this special mutton dish comes from the sorrel itself rather than tomato or tamarind.

Gongura Chicken

Compared to the mutton corry above reserved for special occasions, the gongura chicken is the more everyday, restaurant-friendly cousin of gongura mamsam, and it's become something of a signature order across many Andhra and Telangana eateries. The chicken dish, with a rich gravy made with onions, tomatoes, and ginger-garlic paste, might be popular across Andhra Pradesh but is especially well known in the restaurants of Vijayawada and Guntur, where it's often listed alongside other gongura specialities on the menu. The gonguara leaves are ground into a paste with roasted fenugreek, coriander, and fennel seeds, which gives this chicken recipe its unique colour. It is relished with rice or rotis.

Gongura Biryani

Much less common than the other gongura dishes, gongura biryani brings the leaf's sourness into a full rice dish by layering gongura paste into a chicken or mutton biryani, rather than relying on the usual tomato- or yoghurt-based masala. One well-documented Guntur-style version marinates the meat overnight in a ginger-garlic and yoghurt base, builds a gongura-tomato masala separately, and layers it with part-cooked basmati rice before finishing on dum. It's served as a standalone meal rather than an accompaniment, distinguished from a standard Hyderabadi biryani by its sharper, tangier note rather than the more commonly used dried fruit or rose-water finish.

Sougri Kangsoi

Manipur's take on the same tangy sorrel leaf that Andhra turns into pachadi and mutton curry is used in an oil-free recipe from the Meitei community. It is a stew built around fermented fish, called ngari, true to its northeastern roots. Even though gongura is a perennial plant, many in Manipur prefer to eat it specifically while it's raining, since it's rich in Vitamin C and zinc, which helps the immune system fight off monsoon infections. This sour leaf is also used in other preparations, such as singju, where it is tossed with seasonal herbs, ngari, perilla seeds, besan, and chillies.

How These Gongura Preparations Compare

Make the Most of Monsoon Foods

Sorrel leaves, or gongura, take many forms in the Indian subcontinent, and many of them manifest as preserves, pickles, and chutneys in the south. In other places, like the northeast, you will find them added to stir-fries, stews, and more for simpler preparations that are almost oil-free. Make the most of gongura leaves this monsoon season, especially if you love a sour element in your meals.