Baked bitter gourd or karela. Make this nutritious and immunity booster vegetable in an easy way. You don’t need to spend lots of time in kitchen in this scorching hot weather. Just mix everything and bake. Enjoy the crispy bitter gourd as a side dish.
You can peel the bitter gourd if you don’t like the bitterness. And add more onions while baking. You can also add some lemon juice before serving. Crispy delicious baked karela will be a perfect side dish for any meal.
You may like some more bitter gourd recipes on this blog.
2. Sukto
3. Gujarati bitter gourd stir fry
5. Crispy bitter gourd and potato
According to Healthline here are some health benefits of bitter gourd.
• Packs Several Important Nutrients. Bitter melon is a great source of several key nutrients.
• Can Help Reduce Blood Sugar.
• May Have Cancer-Fighting Properties.
• Could Decrease Cholesterol Levels.
• May Aid Weight Loss.
• Versatile and Delicious.
Linking this recipe to Facebook gourmet group Shhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge. In this monthly group members are paired with different partners every month and two secret ingredients are given to each other. We have to use these ingredients in our recipe. This month theme is Fear Not Bitter suggested by Seema Doraiswamy Sriram who blog at Mildly Indian. Seema is a very talented blogger. You can get numerous healthy and delicious recipes on her blog. I recently bookmarked her Millet jaggery cake and some more.
This month my partner is Poonam Bachhav. I love her space for her versatile recipes. Specially her authentic thali recipes. You can also get many delicious, healthy treat on her blog. You will definitely love her Mango bundt cake and many more. Poonam gave me cumin and Amchur as secret ingredients and I gave her milk and jaggery. Poonam made Eggless banana chocolate cupcakes with these ingredients.
You can use as much shallot or small onions as you want. Sliced onion and shallot both will reduce the bitterness. I used Kashmiri red chilli powder to add some colour. You can skip it or if you want your karela more spicy then you can add hot variety red chilli powder.
Recipe
Bitter gourd or karela – 2
Shallot/sambhar onion or small onions – 15
Onion – 1 large Salt to taste
Cumin powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
Amchur or dry mango powder – 1 teaspoon
Oil – 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon
Coriander leaves and lemon wedges to garnish
Method
1. Wash the karela or bitter gourd and cut off the both tips. Cut the bitter gourd or karela into thin round slices. You can peel the bitter gourd to reduce the bitterness. I didn’t.
2. Peel the sambhar onion or shallot and keep aside. Slice one large onion. You can use one more onion if you like.
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil and brush with little oil. I used parchment paper.
4. In a bowl mix all the dry spices, salt, 1 tablespoon oil and bitter gourd slices. Mix well and keep aside for 10-15 minutes.
5. Arrange the marinated bitter gourd slices on lined baking tray in single layer.
6. In the same bowl mix shallot and onion slices with little salt and one teaspoon oil.
7..Bake the bitter gourd slices at 200 degree temperature for 10 minutes.
8. Take out the baking tray and mix both the onion with bitter gourd slices.
8. Bake for 10 minutes again or until bitter gourd becomes crisp. Keep an eye after 7 minutes. Bitter gourd shouldn’t be burnt.
9. Garnish with cilantro or coriander leaves and lemon wedges. You can add some lemon juice before serving. Serve warm as a side dish.
Note- To reduce the bitterness peel the bitter gourd and use more onion.
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