Lauki, Tori, Tinda, Karela: Gourd Names for the Grocery Aisle

Five green things in a crate, three labels each

You stand at the vegetable table of an Asian grocer. There is a pale green club the size of a baseball bat, a ridged green stick, a small round thing like a green apple, and something warty. Each has a handwritten sign, and none of the signs agree with the recipe you printed.

This is a guide to the gourds you will actually meet, with the names that appear on signs and in recipes, how to pick one, and which dish from our library suits it. These vegetables are mild and cheap, and a good share of everyday Pakistani and Indian weeknight cooking depends on them.

Bottle gourd: lauki, ghiya, doodhi, lau

The pale green, smooth, club- or pear-shaped one. Names you will see:

• Lauki (Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi)
• Ghiya (Hindi, some UK shops)
• Doodhi (Gujarati, Marathi, Mumbai)
• Lau (Bengali)
• Opo squash or calabash (Filipino and Chinese shops, and some US supermarkets)

The flesh is white, watery and very mild. It takes on whatever it is cooked with, which is why it suits daal. In our library it appears in lauki chana daal, where soft cubes simmer with split chickpea lentils until both melt together. The Bangladeshi lau shak bhaji is the Bengali take on the same plant, so check the recipe page for which part of it you need.

Picking one: choose a smaller, firm, evenly pale one with glossy skin. Large old ones get spongy, with big seeds, and can taste bitter. If a piece tastes distinctly bitter when raw, throw it away rather than cooking it. Bitter bottle gourd is a known issue, and the usual advice is to discard it.

Ridge gourd: tori, turai, torai, jhinge

Long, dark green, with sharp ridges running lengthways. Names:

• Tori / torai / turai (Urdu, Hindi, Pakistan)
• Jhinge (Bengali)
• Luffa or Chinese okra (sometimes at Chinese shops, and yes, the sponge luffa is the mature version of this plant)

Young ridge gourd is mild and slightly sweet, and cooks in minutes. Tori sabzi takes 15 minutes of prep and about 25 of cooking, with onion, tomato and a little turmeric, and it releases its own juices so it needs little added water.

Prep: peel the hard ridges with a peeler, leaving some green between them so it holds together. Skip peeling entirely and the edges stay stringy.

Picking one: it should be firm and slim. A fat, heavy one is old and fibrous inside.

Apple gourd: tinda, tinde, Indian round gourd

A small, round, light green vegetable about the size of a tangerine or a small apple. Names:

• Tinda / tinde (Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi)
• Apple gourd, round gourd, Indian squash

Do not confuse it with tindora (ivy gourd, also called kundru or tondli): a thumb-sized oblong vegetable that looks like a baby cucumber. The two names sound alike, they are not the same, and recipes for one do not translate to the other.

Tinda masala is a mild onion-tomato curry with garlic that takes about 30 minutes of cooking. Tinda should be young and tender; the skin is thin and usually left on, or scraped lightly.

Bitter gourd: karela, karele, bitter melon, karolla

Warty, dark green, and exactly as bitter as the name says. Names:

• Karela / karele (Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi)
• Bitter melon (Chinese and Southeast Asian shops, and the usual US supermarket label)
• Korolla / uchhe (Bengali, varied by region)

Karela masala is the classic Pakistani way. The slices are salted first to tame the edge, then browned in oil, then finished in onion-tomato masala. The salting step is why the dish lists 40 minutes of prep. Do not skip it: it pulls out a lot of the sharpness, and browning does the rest.

Picking one: smaller, firmer, bright green ones are less bitter than yellowing or overripe ones. Skip any gone orange or soft.

Quick comparison

A few more you will see

• Kaddu: pumpkin or winter squash. It appears in the Gujarati mixed vegetable dish undhiyu and in many sweet-and-sour curries.
• Parwal / potol (pointed gourd): small green and oblong, popular in Bengal and Bihar. Not in our recipes yet.
• Tindora / kundru (ivy gourd): see the warning above.

Storage and prep rules that apply to all of them

Gourds have high water content, so they do not keep long. Store them unwashed in the fridge crisper and use within about 4 or 5 days. Wash just before cutting. Salt draws out moisture, so salt gourds late (or on purpose, as with karela) rather than at the start of a quick sabzi. And cook them on a medium flame with the lid partly on: they stew in their own juices, so you rarely need extra water.

For leftover ideas and other vegetable-led meals, see what to cook with what you have. If you note your fridge vegetables in Degchi's pantry, it can suggest a gourd dish when one is about to go soft; the home page lets you try it without signing up.