Beerakaya Pappu | Ridge Gourd Dal

Beerakaya pappu is a Andhra style dal recipe made with ridge gourd, tomatoes, toor dal & spices. Beerakaya translates to ridge gourd and pappu to dal or lentils. So beerakaya pappu is nothing but ridge gourd cooked with dal. Most andhra restaurants serve a variety of lentil dishes in the vegetarian meal like this beerakaya pappu. These dal dishes would be cooked with a vegetable, chilies and tangy tomatoes. Thus the dal tastes tangy, hot and tasty.

Most telugu speaking house holds prepare a lentil dish cooked with some veggies for their lunch everyday. This beerakaya pappu is one such dish that is made often.

These lentil dishes are super quick to make as it just needs dumping all the ingredients in a pressure cooker & cook for 3 to 4 whistles. Then a seasoning or tempering is done.

I have always seen my mom preparing all the lentil dishes in a pot in pot method where rice is cooked in one bowl and pappu in another bowl in the same pressure cooker.

For some reason I always make all my lentil dishes directly in a pressure cooker which saves a lot of time. However you can also make this beerakaya pappu following a pot in pot method and cook the rice in one pot & pappu in another.

For more beerakaya recipes, check
Beerakaya curry
Easy beerakaya pachadi
Beerakaya fry

For more pappu recipes, you may check
Tomato pappu
Palakura pesara pappu
Gummadikaya pappu
Sorakaya senagapappu kura

How to Make this in a pot without cooker

• Rinse half cup toor dal (or a mix of toor and moong) in a pot and drain the water. Add 1½ cups peeled and fine chopped gourd, 1 to 2 green chilies (optional) and ¼ cup white or yellow onion fine chopped. Pour 1½ to 2 cups water.
• Bring to a rolling boil and cook on a medium heat until the lentils are almost tender but still have a slight bite to them. Add more water as you cook if required.
• Stir in ½ cup finely chopped tomatoes and cook further until they break down. We usually mash this with a masher or the back of a ladle to get a uniform smooth consistency.
• Stir in 1 teaspoon tamarind (optional) and salt to taste.
• Heat 1 to 2 tablespoon ghee/oil in a pan to temper the lentils. Add 1 dried broken red chili, ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds, and ½ teaspoon cumin seeds. When they begin to splutter, add 2 to 3 small crushed garlic cloves and 1 sprig curry leaves.
• Fry till the curry leaves turn crisp. Turn off the stove. Add a pinch of hing, little turmeric & ½ teaspoon red chilli powder.
• Quickly mix & pour this over the dal. Off the heat and mix well. Serve beerakaya pappu with rice ghee and pickle.

Pro Tips

1.Always use tender, young & fresh ridge gourd that has no seeds. This kind of gourd is sweeter and less fibrous so it tastes very delicious.

2. Experiment with different kinds of dal. Most andhra pappu recipes are made using only toor dal or kandi pappu. But I always love using little moong dal in all pappu dishes as it yields a thicker texture & is lighter on the tummy.

3.Andhra dishes are extremely spicy , garlicky and hot. But we do not eat very hot foods so I have used a moderate amount of all these. Feel free to add more chilies, garlic, red chili powder & tamarind.

4. I usually avoid green chilies & tamarind in most of my lentil dishes as these ingredients make the dal dishes very acidic.

So if you love simple dishes like me then skip both the ingredients and squeeze in little lemon juice before serving.

Serving suggestions

Traditionally most andhra pappu dishes are served with hot rice, ghee, pickle & vadiyalu (andhra style fryums).

Beerakaya pappu goes well with rice, chapathi or phulka too.

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