Bitter gourd Recipe/ Bitter gourd pitlai

This is a very common dish in my house. You might all be knowing the health benefits of bitter gourd (karela in hindi). It is an excellent source of vitamin B1, B2, B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorous, manganese, and has high dietary fiber. It is used in treating diabetics and is also a blood purifier. Combined with brown chick peas and tur dal, it is very tasty and you will not feel the bitterness. In authentic recipe, we use only brown chick peas but you can add any bean seed of your choice. Today we will learn how to make bitter gourd pitlai/pavakkai pitlai following this easy recipe with step wise pictures.

Bitter Gourd Pitlai-Pavakkai Pitlai

 Prep Time : 10 mins (excluding soaking channa time)

Cook Time : 30 mins
Serves: 4
Recipe Category: Kuzhambu
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian-Tamil Brahmin

   Ingredients needed

   Bitter gourd – 2 medium size
   Tur dal – 1/3 cup (measuring cup)
   Brown channa /garbanzo beans- 1/4 cup
   Tamarind – small gooseberry sized ball
   Salt – as required

   Roast and Grind (pitlai masala/powder)

   Oil -1 tsp
   Coriander seeds -1 tbsp
   Bengal gram/channa dal/kadalai paruppu – 1 ½ tsp
   Red chillies – 3-4
   Raw rice -1/2 tsp
   Coconut (grated) -1/4 cup

   For the seasoning

   Oil -2 tsp
   Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
   Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam- 1/2 tsp
   Hing/asafoetida – a pinch
   Red chilli -1
   Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

   For Garnishing

   Coriander leaves finely chopped -2 tbsp

Preparations


Heat a tsp of oil, fry coriander seeds, bengal gram, red chillies and raw rice. When dal turns slightly brown, add the coconut and fry well. After it cools, grind it to a smooth paste adding little water and keep it aside. If you use decicated coconut, you can powder the masala (do not add water) and store it in the refrigerator for a week.

Soak brown channa in water overnight or for 5-6 hours and pressure cook for 3 whistles or until soft.

Cut bitter gourd into rounds. You can use the seeds if they are tender otherwise discard it.

Pressure cook tur dal  for 3 whistles. Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker and mash the dal well. You can keep the brown channa (kondai kadalai) and bitter gourd in a small cup along with tur dal and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

Soak tamarind in 1 1/2 cups of warm water and extract its juice. Discard the pulp.

Now we have the pitlai paste, cooked dal, channa, bitter gourd and tamarind extract ready. Now we will proceed to the method.

Method

Heat 2 tsp of oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, red chilli, asafoetida, curry leaves. Then add tamarind extract.

Add the cooked bitter gourd and channa.

Boil on medium flame until the raw smell of the tamarind goes.

Then add cooked tur dal, ground paste along with half a cup of water.

Cook for 3-4 minutes on medium flame until everything gets blended well. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice. The consistency should be thicker than sambar.

It is a very tasty and healthy accompaniment for rice.

Tips to remove bitterness from bitter gourd – If needed, after cutting the bitter gourds, add a little salt and keep it aside for 5 minutes. Then squeeze out the water to remove the bitterness of the vegetable though it is not necessary for this recipe.

Tips to save energy– While you pressure cook tur dal, keep bitter gourd and chick peas in a small vessel along with it. In this way, you can pressure cook all the three in one go and save time and fuel.

Tur dal should be cooked to a mush. If required, you can soak tur dal in hot water for 15-20 minutes before pressure cooking. By doing this tur dal gets cooked well and we can also save fuel.

Bitter gourd Recipes

Bitter gourd Curry 

Bitter gourd chips

Stuffed Bitter gourd 

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    View Comments (76)

    • A delicious dish! I really loved the F1 car you made out of bitter gourd... so creative and beautiful Padhu:)

    • Looks really good. Never tried addding chickpeas to bitter gourd but I can imagine the combined taste.

    • this is a very new and creative recipe for me.. never heard of bitter gourd pitlai.. looks yummy and love your presentation as always!

    • Dear Padhu
      The photograph is awesome and very well composed.!!! I love bitter gourd. I shall certainly try this recipe when I am back home.
      Can you imagine , yesterday I was hunting Milan for Karela and finally got 3 of them ( one semi ripe) ( along with green chili and Okra).

      Now guess what I am going to do with it in my Fake kitchen!! I will soak the karela ring in salt, crisp fry and use it as Piza topping with added Parmesan, ( Piza I will buy from the shop near by..ha ha)
      By the way , if you love karela , try it on piza, make it bit soury and crisp fry)
      Happy cooking

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