Bitter No More: Aloo Karela Chokha You’ll Actually Love!
Bitter Gourd (known as Karela in Hindi language), is a highly nutritious vegetable loaded with medicinal properties. It offers several health benefits like :
- Helps to regulate Blood Sugar and frequently used as an Ayurvedic medicine to manage type 2 diabetes.
- Rich is vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, potassium and antioxidants, thus helps in boosting immunity and digestive health
- It is very low in calorie and improves the insulin sensitivity. Hence, it prevents accumulation of fat and helps in weight loss
- It helps to lower bad cholesterol (LDL), hence good for heart health
and the list goes on……
We must try to include bitter gourds in our diet and needless to say there is no benefit in eating fried bitter gourds. Vegetables retain most of its nutrition when consumed raw or boiled so I found eating bitter gourds as aloo karela ka chokha is really tasty and healthy. We love eating this chokha with rice and ghee. Trust me, try this recipe of aloo karela ka chokha and gradually you’ll start loving bitter gourds.
HOW TO MAKE TASTY ALOO KARELA CHOKHA – STEP BY STEP RECIPE
- Here, I have taken two bitter gourds and two potatoes. Cut the bitter gourds into 1 inch roundels and cut the potatoes into halves or quarter cubes. Boil or steam the potatoes and bitter gourds. I generally prefer the steaming method because the vegetables retain more nutrition and in this case the bitter gourds tastes less bitter. After steaming or boiling the potato and bitter gourd, take these out on a plate or bowl and cool these down completely.
2. When the bitter gourds and potatoes have completely cooled down then mash these together.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a cooking pan. You may use any oil for making this chokha. When the oil is hot, add the below mentioned ingredients one by one :
- 1 tsp of Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 tsp of Mustard Seeds
- 2 to 3 Dry Red Chilly
- 1 tsp of chopped Ginger
- 1 tsp of chopped Green Chillies or as per taste
- 10 to 12 Curry Leaves
Fry these for few seconds till the raw smell of ginger is gone.
4. Next, add one medium or large size Onion cut into thin slices and fry till the raw smell of Onion is gone and it has turned translucent. Then, add salt and black salt balancing your taste and 1/2 tsp of ghee and fry the onion for a minute or two.
5. Add the mashed bitter gourd and potato and quickly mix with the onions. Lastly, garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Check the salt and if required then add some more black salt. Give a nice mix, mix, mix.
And healthy and tasty aloo karela ka chokha is ready!!. Enjoy with steamed rice and ghee. It really tastes awesome.
