Bitter gourd !! The first thing that comes to my mind seeing it, is the bitterness in the name. Bitter foods do not appeal to many people, but the bitter gourd is a common food in Indian cuisine. This vegetable is commonly named as karela in Indian subcontinent. These are dark or light green in color depending on the region where they are grown. Apart from their bitter and undesirable taste, bitter gourd is a good source of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Bitter gourds are very low in calories but dense with precious nutrients. These are an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese and have high dietary fiber as well. Bitter gourds are also rich in iron, contain twice the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach and twice the potassium of a banana. Always prefer to choose young, tender bitter gourds. Because young, tender ones are least bitter since the bitterness increases as the vegetable mature. So if you can handle the bitterness, you will be able to enjoy the health benefits of the bitter gourd. My mom-in-law often makes a curry of bitter gourd or karela with a taste of sweet as well as sour. She prefers to make this without onion and garlic. But I am here made some changes with her dish. This sweet and sour curry of bitter gourd is prepared with addition of onion and garlic. The sourness of this bitter gourd curry is for the tamarind pulp and sweetness is from jaggery. Basically this is an Andhra cuisine. This dish is very simple to prepare ad can be an accompaniment for any rice item. The bitter gourd curry prepared with tamarind, jaggery and spices is a diabetic friendly recipe as well. So lets go in details.
Yummilicious.
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