The crispy Bitter Melon Recipe will be your favorite vegetable dish if you like light and bitter vegetable stir fries!
A few spices make this bitter melon recipe flavorful and not overpowering bitter.
Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
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What is Bitter Melon?
Bitter Melon is a very bitter vegetable. No other vegetable compares to the bitter melon in terms of bitterness.
The Indian Bitter Melon and the Japanese Bitter Melon are the most common varieties mentioned.
Bitter Melon is a gourd, which grows on a vine mostly in warm tropical and subtropical parts of the world. The plant originated in India and was introduced to China some 700 years ago.
Later on, the bitter melon was popularized all over the world, as it is known to have a positive effect on people who suffer from diabetes.
Pregnant women should stay away from consuming bitter melons, as it can cause miscarriages.
Tips to reduce Bitterness
To make this bitter melon recipe successfully, you would first want to reduce the bitterness.
Follow these useful tips (I wish I had known those when I tried cooking bitter melon for the first time!!)
- you can blanch the bitter melon first before cooking it further. So, keep a small saucepan ready some cooking water, place your bitter melon (preferably cut) and just leave it in the cooking water for less than a minute. That will take out some of the excess bitterness.
- you can add sweetening agents such as brown sugar or palm sugar (Jaggery) to cover up some of the bitterness
- you can add a certain combination of spices and seasonings to turn the bitter gourd recipe into something quite delicious
- you can fry it crispy, as this seems to make the vegetable a bit less bitter for this so-called Karela recipe.
I, personally, fell in love with this spiced bitter melon recipe, cooked by my husband's family restaurant chef. The chef is originally from a poor village in Bihar/North India.
He really has a hand and eye for food, the passion is recognizable in each dish he plates up.
He was excited too when I ask him if he could show and share with us his Bitter Melon Recipe.
📖 Recipe
Crispy Bitter Melon Recipe
Ingredients
To Fry:
- 2 Piece Bitter Melons medium sized fresh
- 3 Tablespoons Oil
- 1 Onion sliced
- 2 Pieces Garlic Cloves
- 1 Tomato sliced
- 2.5 Ounces Coconut Raw Freshly Shredded
- 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
- ½ Teaspoon Turmeric Ground
- ½ Teaspoon Cumin Seeds Ground
- ¼ Teaspoon Red Chili Pepper or Cayenne
- 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds Ground
- 1 ½ Tablespoon Sugar Molasses
- Pinch Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Cilantro Fresh fresh chopped, aka Coriander leaves
Instructions
- Start by cutting off the ends of the bitter melon and slice it lengthwise so that you can remove and discard the seed core of the fruit.
- If you want to reduce the bitterness to a minimum, then blanch them by keeping the slices for 2–3 minutes in boiling water and afterward cool them in ice water (drain water well).
- In a frying pan heat 2 Tbs (of the 3 mentioned in the ingredients) oil and add the bitter melon slices, stir-fry on high heat for 3-5 min.
- Take out from the pan, shake off excess oil and keep aside.
- Cut the Onion, Tomato, chop the Garlic and Coriander and keep the freshly scraped Coconut ready, as mentioned in the ingredients.
- Take a clean frying pan and fry the Onion translucent and throw in the garlic and tomato, frying for a while.
- Now add the shredded Coconut and stir-fry until the color changes to a golden brown and add minimal amount of water so that it doesn't stick to the pan from now on.
- Thereafter, you can add the bitter melon slices and the Garam masala, Turmeric powder, Cumin Powder, Chili powder, Coriander powder, Sugar, Salt, chopped Cilantro/Coriander leaves and stir-fry for another 2–3 minutes.
- Finished! You just cooked your first Bitter Melon dish. You can garnish (optional) with chaat masala seasoning or black rock salt, more fresh cilantro/coriander leaves and serve hot as a side dish. See serving suggestions in the post.
Notes
Nutrition
Serving Ideas
Serve the Bitter Melon Recipe as a side dish to other meals. Usually, stir-fried bitter melon goes really well with a coconut curry over rice.
Use it the way you would use other vegetables, but in a smaller portion. Bitter Melon is supposed to be enjoyed in small quantities only.
Just the way you would eat a radish salad or horseradish because the bitterness can be quite a lot.
Serving the bitter melon with other meals makes a complete, balanced meal.
