Healthy Karela Sabzi Recipe | Dry Bitter Gourd Curry

This quick karela sabzi is a stir fry that is quite tasty with rotis. It is also my go-to recipe when I need to make a quick karela stir-fry.

Karela or bitter gourd is commonly consumed in India. It has a variety of health benefits and is prepared in many ways.

Health Benefits of Karela:

Karela is good for

1. Boosting Immunity

2. Reducing and regulating blood sugar

3. Good for skin and hair

4. Aiding weight loss

5. overall health

It is rich in vitamins B1, B2, B3, folates, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and dietary fiber.

How to Prepare Karela Before cooking:

Karela or bitter gourd needs a bit of preparation before cooking.

Unlike bharwan karela for which you need to scrape the karela, for simple karela sabzi, you need to wash and chop karela into small pieces.

Make sure that you discard all the seeds within. Now add about a tsp. of salt. Mix well and leave aside for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes your karela would have released water. Wash it well and discard the water. Now your karela is ready to cook.

This method helps in removing the bitterness to a great extent from the karelas.

If your karela is very bitter, then you can apply both salt and some tamarind paste to the karela pieces.

This will help in further reduction of the bitterness. Wash and use after half an hour.

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Bharwan Karela or Stuffed Bitter gourd

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Here’s my simple karela sabzi recipe:

Recipe:

Chop and prepare the karela as explained above by applying salt and keeping aside for about 30 minutes.

Then wash and use.

Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onions and karela pieces together.

Cook for about 15 minutes on low flame till the onions are golden brown and karela gets softer.

Add turmeric, chilli powders and coriander powder and mix well.

Cook covered for about 10 minutes till your karela is well cooked.

Now add the tamarind paste or dry mango powder along with some salt and garam masala.

Taste before adding salt as you have already treated karela with salt earlier.

Taste and adjust seasoning. Your karela sabzi is ready to serve.

Pro Tips:

Do remember to pre-treat your karela before cooking.

Use green and fresh looking karelas for cooking.

You can use dry mango powder in place of tamarind paste.

You can reduce the chilli powder if you want to reduce the heat in your sabzi.

You can add a little water in case your sabzi becomes too dry while cooking. This will help prevent it from sticking to the bottom.

The onions must be slow cooked so that they become caramelized. This gives a lovely sweet taste to the karele ki sabzi.

Your dry karela sabzi or dry bitter gourd curry is ready to serve.

Have it as a side with rotis, parathas and dal. It is delicious in a homely way.

Here's the recipe card:

📖 Recipe Card

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