Recipe
Stir-fried bitter melon (karela sabzi)
- Herb:
- Bitter melon Momordica charantia
- Method:
- Culinary use
- Plant part:
- Fruit
About 30 minBeginnerRecipe science profile
Procedure
- Wash the fruits, halve them, scrape out seeds and pulp with a spoon and cut into half-moons.
- Salt, leave for 20 minutes and squeeze out the juice — part of the bitterness goes with it.
- Sizzle cumin in a tablespoon of oil, add sliced onion and fry until golden; add the bitter melon, a pinch of turmeric and ground coriander.
- Fry uncovered for 10–12 minutes until the slices are tender and the edges brown; season with salt, a little sugar and lemon.
Extraction
- Herb:
- 2 medium-sized unripe fruits (about 300 g) for 2 portions
- Solvent:
- salt to draw out bitterness, then sauté in oil
- Shelf life:
- 2 days in the fridge
- Target compounds:
- salting and squeezing remove some of the bitter cucurbitacins; heat softens the fruit
Notes
An everyday Indian dish. Anyone on diabetes medication should not eat bitter melon as a 'remedy' in large amounts alongside their drugs — the literature describes lowered blood glucose and the Cochrane review does not endorse it as treatment. Tradition advises against it in pregnancy.
Why it works
Salt draws water and part of the bitter cucurbitacins and momordicins out of the tissue, frying rounds off the rest. The insulin-like compounds (charantin, polypeptide-p) come from extract studies; Cochrane found insufficient evidence of a clinical effect.
Literature
- Ooi CP, Yassin Z, Hamid T-A (2012): Momordica charantia for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Cochrane Database Syst Rev CD007845 — Cochrane: insufficient evidence for an effect on blood glucose; a food, yes, a diabetes treatment, no.
Related
Bitter melon — Herb card
Culinary use — Processing method detail