Ingredients:
Green papaya or bottle gourd (500 gms): cut in medium size cubes
Red lentils (masoor daal): Half a cup
Garlic: 8-10 cloves (roughly crushed)
Green chilies: 2-3 (slit in two pieces)
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander leaves to garnish
Kolkhar: Half a cup (OR, if you don’t have Kolkhar use..)
Cooking soda (NaHCO₃) : 1 to one and half tea spoon

Optional:
Fermented bamboo shoot (grated): One tea spoon
Small dry fish: 5-6  
(I have given these two items as optional because everyone is not used to the strong fermented flavour of bamboo shoots or dry  fish. Also vegetarians can skip using dry fish.)

Note: Not only green papaya, people use various vegetables to prepare this item in Assam. You can use bottle gourd, tinda, taro roots, taro stems, cucumber (mature one), cauliflower stems etc. I have used a bottle gourd as other items were not available.

Preparation: Half an hour (serves 4-5 persons)

Put washed lentil and the vegetable cubes into a deep pan. Add 3 cups of water and bring it to boil. Lower the heat and extract the froths from top with a ladle. Now add salt, roughly crushed garlic and green chilies. While stirring, add the Kolkhar or Soda and keep stirring in lower flame as it will be fizzy as soon as you put the soda.

Now add grated bamboo shoots and dry fish. This is an optional step. You can skip this part if you are not using these two items.

Cover the pan and let it cook for 15-20 minutes till the vegetable becomes tender and you get a thick brown gravy. You can add more water if needed. Keep stirring in between so that it does not stick at the bottom of the pan.

Once done garnish with some fresh coriander leaves and server hot with plane rice. If you noticed, not a single spice and or a drop of oil is used in the item. This is beauty of this preparation, which is unique in taste and healthy as well.