If you have diabetes, this is an ideal appetizer for you. When you’re eating too much hot and oily stuff, this soup seems to cool down your body system. It’s a great soup to add to your daily meals or at least twice a week. Wonderful recipe which I happened to learn from my mom. Use your imagination, add in a couple of veggies to reduce the bitterness and to enhance the taste. Notoriously bitter of all vegetables, so, I have added lots of ripe tomatoes (canned) to make it more like tomato soup, but not really necessary.
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| Ingredients-1 | |
|---|---|
| 1 no | Bitter gourd (Big size about 4″ long) or 10 count baby bittergourds |
| 1/2 cup | Onion (roughly chopped) |
| 1 cup | Tomato (ripe and juicy) |
| 3 cloves | Garlic (crushed) |
| 2 pinch | Turmeric powder |
| 1 teaspoon | Coriander /dhania powder |
| 1/4 teaspoon | Black pepper powder |
| 1/4 teaspoon | Salt (or to taste) |
| 2 cups | Water |
| Ingredients-2 | |
|---|---|
| 1/2 teaspoon | Butter or ghee |
| 5 leaves | Curry leaves |
| 1/4 teaspoon | Cumin seeds |
Some recipes to try with Bitter Gourd / Pavakkai / Karela – Bitter Gourd Chips Pan Fried Karela Kakarakaya Kura Bitter Gourd Curry Pavakkai Pitlai Stuffed Karela Pavakkai Sambar Bitter Gourd Kuzhambu Bitter Melon Curry
These are tiny bitter gourd which are very mild and don’t taste that bitter compared to the large. Wash and cut bitter gourd into half and scoop off the seeds with a spoon and then slice them into thin pieces , roughly chop the onion, crush the tomatoes and garlic. Put all ingredients from table-1 in a pan and bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes until all veggies are cooked thoroughly. Strain the content and serve the soup with toast or any bread.
Another variation to this recipe is to heat little ghee or butter and splutter curry leaves and cumin seeds. Add this to the simmering soup and then strain.
Notes
- Use any additional vegetable to this to make it less bitter. Carrots, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Celery goes well with Bitter gourd.
- Dilute with water if its too strong for you.
- Same recipe can be used for Bitter Melon too.
7 Comments
I tried it today. I just made a paste after cooking and it’s excellent. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Raji!
I have tried this . This was so simple and easy to make. I loved it even though it was bit bitter. I am a diabetic person, so this will help me a lot. Fantastic job. Thanks a lot for this recipe.
Fantastic and very simple to make, thanks for this recipe, I am diabetic and have decided to do more. Alex from London
Just Want to check that you have mentioned as 1 big bittergourd .The image that you have given here is what you are referring as a big one?Because here we will get long bittergourd also.I mean the shape.
Hi Agnes,
Thanks for visiting my site. I’ve updated the recipe, pls check the table… small ones actually will taste better compared to the large as it may be too bitter. Try and let me know. Thanks.
Good for health! I’m going to try it today.