Recipe of Stuffed Bitter Gourd
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A delicious way to enjoy bitter gourd
Bitter Gourd (also known as Bitter Melon) is a common vegetable available across the globe and is considered a healthy vegetable because of its high fibre and mineral contents.
It was more abundant in Africa and Asia from where it spread to other places. This vegetable is a bit bitter in taste and that is the reason as why many people do not relish it. But if a bitter gourd dish is prepared using proper ingredients in certain ways then result is a delicious dish.
There are some interesting ways to prepare it so that the bitterness is lessened considerably. By using a mix of some spices and other ingredients, a tasty and delicious dish could be prepared.
One such dish is stuffed Bitter gourd which is quite common in my country India and the regions around.
We will learn the details of preparing this dish step by step in this article.
About Bitter Gourd
Bitter Gourd contains many important minerals and nutrients like Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Folate, Potassium, Zinc, and Iron. It also has some antioxidant compounds such as catechin, gallic acid, epicatechin, and chlorogenic acid.
Because of the presence of Vitamin C and Vitamin A, it is said to be helpful in disease prevention, bone formation, wound healing, promoting skin health, and strengthening vision.
100 grams of raw bitter gourd provides only about 20 calories. That is quite a small amount from the point of view of the calorie concious people. With low calories and high fibre content it is a food of choice for many people especially those who are on a diet for weight reduction.
Ingredients for stuffed bitter gourd
Time taken for dish - 30 minutes.
The following quantity of the ingredients is sufficient for 3-4 people when this dish is taken along with other food items during the main meals.
- Bitter Gourd - 5 numbers (medium sized).
- Onion - 1 to 2 numbers.
- Garlic - 6 to 8 cloves.
- Capsicum - Half a piece.
- Potato - 1 number.
- Tomato - 1 number.
- Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp.
- Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp.
- Coriander powder - 1 tsp.
- Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp.
- Dry mango powder - 2 tsp.
- Cooking Oil - 1 tbsp.
- Green chilli - 1 number.
- Salt - As per taste.
Preparation
- Peel onions and garlic cloves.
- Chop onion, garlic, capsicum, and tomato and keep them separately.
- Cut the green chilli only in 2-3 parts. Do not chop it finely.
- Peel the bitter gourds lightly and discard the peelings. These peelings are generally more bitter than the other parts of bitter gourd and discarding them helps in decreasing bitterness.
- Scoop out the inside material by making a slit from one side. Slit should be long enough but should not touch the ends as that restriction would be helpful while filling the hollowed gourds. Inspect the scooped out material and discard tough and hard seeds, if present, and keep the remaining soft parts aside.
Method
- Cook the hollow bitter gourds in steam for about 6-8 minutes and keep aside.
- Boil the potato by immersing it in water in a pan and by keeping it on medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Full boil is not necessary as partially boiled will also do. Once it is cooled down, peel it and keep aside.
- Take a flat pan and sprinkle half tbsp oil on it. Let the oil heat up and start smoking.
- Add cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add chopped garlic, onion, tomato, capsicum, mashed boiled potato, and scooped out soft material of the bitter gourds and saute for 1-2 minutes in medium heat.
- Add coriander powder, turmeric powder, fennel seeds, green chilli pieces, salt and cook for 3-4 minutes in medium heat.
- Now add dry mango powder to it and mix well. The filling is ready. Remove from heat.
- Stuff each bitter gourd tightly with the filling. If some left out filling is there just keep it aside.
- In the same pan (or a new pan) pour remaining half tbsp oil and put on medium heat. Place the stuffed Bitter gourds on the pan and also place the remaining filling on the sides or in between the stuffed gourds.
- Cook for 8-10 minutes in medium heat. Sprinkle little water if the dish gets sticking to bottom.
- The dish is ready. Remove the pan from the stove.
Serving and decoration
This can be served as one serving equal to one stuffed bitter gourd. For children half piece to each would suffice. The total quantity can meet the requirement of 4-5 people easily.
The dish is to be served directly on the platter.
I have placed the stuffed gourds in shape of the star (see picture in the beginning of this article) but there are many other ways to decorate it like making lines on it with cream or by sprinkling sauce on it.
Variations
- The dish is still slightly bitter and some people add a spoon full of sugar/jaggery to the filling and mix it well before stuffing the gourds. It is optional to do so.
- The stuffed gourds can be dipped in tomato sauce in case one wants to consume them in that way enjoying the taste of tomato gravy on them.
- The amount of potato can be increased from 1 to 2 in case one wants to decrease the bitterness further.
- Fennel is one of the most important ingredient for this dish and if found palatable then its quantity can be increased by another half tsp.
Nutritional information
Based on the calorie value of the ingredients, each stuffed bitter gourd will give about 40-45 calorie. If sugar/jaggery added then it would increase to 45-50 per stuffed gourd.
A note
This dish is very good for taking it to the picnics or journeys or outdoors as it does not get stale or bad quickly. Reducing potato from the recipe will further increase the usable duration. I have experienced using it for 1-2 days during long train journeys.
Bitter gourd benefits
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2024 Umesh Chandra Bhatt
