Bitter Gourd or Pavaka Fry

Bitter gourd is one vegetable that  I never like to eat this in any form as I hate its  bitterness. Taking me back to my younger days when my mom used to make it often at home for meal. I would literarlly cry  as I don’t want to eat it and hated it so much.

Now keeping in mind the health benefits,  I make it a point to make it once a month at home, some times it could be a fry like this or a theeyal.

This fry I tell is not bitter at all and goes well with some nice tangy curry like moru kutan.

Nutritional Benefits of the Bitter Guard

Bitter gourds are very low in calories but dense with precious nutrients.  It is an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and has high dietary fiber.  It is rich in iron, contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, and twice the potassium of a banana.

Lets move on the recipe:

Ingredients:

Bitter guard      : 2 medium (remove the seeds and slice them thin)

Onion – 2 medium sliced

Green Chillied – 5- 6 sllit

Oil – 2 to 4 tbsp

Sale to taste

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp *

Chilli Powder – ½ tsp or upto your level of spice

Lemon  juice – 1 tsp *

* optional

Method:

Add oil about 2 tbsp in a  large pan, add onion, green chillies and fry till lightly for about 2 or 3 minutes, now throw in the bitter guard, turmeric, chilli powder and add some salt, give  it a good stir and now close the lid for 5 minutes and let it get cooked.

Now take off the lid and put the flame on sim and now let this get nicely roasted till dark and crispy. At this you can add a  bit of oil if you like.

Just to reduce the bitterness you can add some lime and sugar when almost roasted (its optional), if you like to have it with little bitterness then don’t add sugar and lime juice.

Enjoy this with rice and some nice curry.

Latha