Karela, also known as bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash is, as all its names suggest, BITTER! Yet, it is used across India. From the plains of northern India to the southern, tropical regions of the country, karela is used in a variety of recipes. The bharwan karela or stuffed bitter gourd was one of my grandmother’s staples in the summer months. Although, it remains widely available from spring until autumn. So you can pretty much enjoy Karela (if you dare!) most of the year. This piquant, no waste recipe inspired by memories of how dadiji used to make bharwan karela will help. Make it!
Ingredients for Bharwan Karele
- Karele/bitter gourds, 8 to 10
- Salt, for salting and seasoning
- Lehsun/Garlic cloves, 3-4
- Kashmiri Laal Mirch/Kashmiri whole chillies, 2-3
- Pyaaz/Red onion, 1 or 1/2 of a large onion, chopped
- Sarson/ Mustard Oil, 2 tbsp (for making the tadka)
- Cooking oil, 2 to 3 tbsp (canola or olive oil for sautéing stuffed bitter gourds)
- Saunf/fennel seeds, 1 tsp
- Jeera/Cumin seeds, 1 tsp
- Kalaunji/Nigella seeds, 1 tsp
- Haldi/Turmeric, 1/2 tsp
- Laal Mirch/Ground chilli, 1/2 tsp
- Dhania/Coriander powder, 1 tsp
- Amchoor/Unripe Mango powder, 1/2 to 1 tsp
- Gur/Jaggery, 1 inch piece or about 2 tsp
- Besan/gram flour (or chickpea flour) ~ 2 tbsp (optional)
Let’s make Bharwan Karele!
Prep time: 15 minutes, Cooking: 30 minutes.
You’ll need a peeler, knife, spoon, frying pan and a couple of bowls.
First: Peel, scrape and prepare the karele/bitter melons.
Wash and pat dry the karele. Next, peel the outer rind. Do not throw away the peels. Collect them in a bowl and salt them liberally. As the peels sweat it out, slit each bitter gourd lengthwise but keep the ends intact so they form a pocket. Take a spoon, I used a teaspoon, and scrape out all the seeds from inside each karela. You should have empty pockets of supple green flesh.
Wash the peeled and emptied karele and pat them dry. Place in a bowl and salt generously. Salting is the easiest way of extracting excess moisture from ingredients by simple osmosis. In the case of bitter melons it also helps to draw out the bitterness. Leave the melons undisturbed until needed later.
Second: make the stuffing
In this no-waste (except the seeds!) recipe what was once outside will now go inside. The stuffing is made up of spices, onion, garlic, chillies and the bitter gourd peels put aside earlier.
Finely chop the onion. Smash, peel and chop garlic. I used whole dried Kashmiri red chillies for their color and mild heat. The beauty of this pepper is that you can use it with its seeds without making your food too hot. Roughly chop the chillies.
Put a frying pan on medium high heat. This recipe can be cooked using any cooking oil but mustard or sarson ka tel adds another layer of flavor. Mustard oil is peppery and pungent. These two flavors are surprisingly complementary when paired with the bitterness of karela. But if you do not stock mustard oil, use any cooking oil at hand. Add oil to the pan and then proceed to make the tadka.
Once the oil is warm, add all the seeds to it – fennel, cumin and nigella. Let these bloom and splutter before adding chopped garlic, onion and chillies. Sauté until the onions start browning. While the onion is browning, squeeze out water from the bitter gourd peels that have been salted. Once onions are done add dry spices – chili powder, turmeric and coriander powder. Stir and cook for a minute and lower the heat. If the pan is too dry, add a splash of water to prevent spices from burning. Add the squeezed out peels to this tadka and cook on medium high heat stirring intermittently until all the moisture has been cooked off and the peels are a deep dark green.
Borrow flavor from Khade masalewala Aam ka Achar / Mango Pickle with whole spices
Fennel, cumin and nigella seeds are used in making pickles like Aam ka Achar, pickled young mangoes. We call it ”khade masale ka achar” or achar with whole spices. Unlike some other versions the spices are kept whole. If you have some Punjabi Aam ka Achar with whole spices at hand, you could use the oil and spices (masala) from that while making this tadka. It is very done quite often, so you won’t be taking a short cut!
Once the peels have cooked, add amchoor and jaggery. Turn off the heat and mix well. Jaggery will caramelize if left on the heat. Do not give it a chance to! Stir well until everything is combined and remove to a bowl. Allow this mixture – the stuffing – to cool before the next step. Retain the frying pan as is, do not wash it.
Use besan for bulk
If you think the stuffing won’t be enough for all the gourds, add some besan to the mix and cook until fragrant. Besan might be clumpy to start with. Stir and roast until it is combined with the masala and you can smell its nutty aroma. It will cook some more with the karele at the end.
Third: Stuff and cook karele to make Bharwan Karele
Once the stuffing is cool enough to work with it’s time to stuff the karele and cook them. But before you can do so wash the salted melons to remove excess salt and gently squeeze out some moisture too. Be gentle so as to avoid breaking the melons.
In the same frying pan used for making the stuffing, warm up 2-3 tablespoons of oil. I cooked the karele in olive oil. Once the oil is warm place as many stuffed bitter gourds as you can. Sauté and cook them turning a few times until the skin is brown and cooked through. The color will change from a light minty green to a darker, caramelized green – brown. I imagine this will be a breeze in an air fryer. That is a variation I plan to try soon!
Serve bharwan karele with dal, dahi and rice or chapati!
These karele are perfect for summer meals with freshly made chapatis. While in the west summer provides an explosion of produce, in India the dry weather drastically contracts choices. The same few vegetables do the rounds over and over. Making karele in different ways – stuffed, fried, with potatoes – adds variety.
Also great for travel and long train journeys!
These are also great for travel. Bite into them along side a meal or wrap them in a chapati and you have a tangy roll for a meal on the go. I recall carrying karele and plain parathe packed by dadiji for my train journeys from Bhopal to Delhi during college.
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Bharwan Karela – a no waste recipe!
Equipment
- Frying pan
- Peeler
Ingredients
- 8 – 10 Karela/Bitter melons
- Salt plenty!
- 3-4 Lehsun/Garlic cloves smashed, peeled and chopped
- 2-3 Kashmiri Mirch/Whole Dry Kashmiri Chilies chopped
- 1 or 1/2 Pyaaz/Onion red preferably, finely chopped
- 2-3 Tbsp Sarson ka tel/Mustard Oil (for tadka) or any other cooking oil
- 2-3 Tbsp Olive oil (for cooking karele) or any other cooking oil
- 1 Tsp Saunf/fennel seeds
- 1 Tsp Jeera/cumin seeds
- 1 Tsp Kalaunji/Nigella seeds
- 1/2 Tsp Haldi/Turmeric powder
- 1/2 Tsp Lail mirch/Red chili powder
- 1 Tsp Dhania/Coriander powder
- 1/2 to 1 Tsp Amchoor/Unripe Mango Powder
- 2 Tsp Gur/Jaggery
- 2 Tbsp Besan/gram flour or chickpea flour (optional)
Instructions
Peel, scrape and prepare the karele/bitter melons
- Wash and pat dry the karele. Next, peel the outer skin. Do not throw away the peels. Collect them in a bowl and salt them liberally. As the peels sweat it out, slit each bitter gourd lengthwise but keep the ends intact so they form a pocket. Using a spoon scrape out all the seeds from inside each karela. You should have empty pockets of supple green flesh.
- Wash the peeled and emptied karele and pat them dry. Place in a bowl and salt generously. Leave the melons undisturbed until needed later.
Make the stuffing
- Finely chop the onion. Smash, peel and chop garlic. Roughly chop whole Kashmiri chillies.
- Put a frying pan on medium high heat. Add mustard oil/any cooking oil to it. Once the oil is warm, add all the seeds to it – fennel, cumin and nigella. Let these bloom and splutter before adding chopped garlic, onion and chillies. Sauté until the onions start browning. Once onions are done add dry spices – chili powder, turmeric and coriander powder. Stir and cook for a minute and lower the heat. If the pan is too dry, add a splash of water to prevent spices from burning.
- Squeeze out water from salted melon peels and add them to the pan. Cook on medium high heat stirring intermittently until all the moisture has been cooked off and the peels are a deep dark green.
- Once the peels have cooked, add amchoor and jaggery. Turn off the heat and mix well. Jaggery will caramelize if left on the heat. Stir well until everything is combined and remove to a bowl. Allow this mixture to cool before the next step. Retain the frying pan as is, do not wash it.
- If the stuffing doesn’t seem enough, add bean for bulk and more flavor. Mix it well until no lumps remain and continue to roast on low heat till you smell its nutty aroma. Besan will also cook some more in the final step with the karele.
Stuff and cook karele to make Bharwan Karele
- Wash the salted melons to remove excess salt and gently squeeze out some moisture too. Be gentle so as to avoid breaking the melons.
- In the same frying pan used for making the stuffing, warm up 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is warm place as many stuffed bitter gourds as you can easily maneuver. Sauté and cook them turning a few times until the skin is brown and cooked through. The color will change from a light minty green to a darker, caramelized green – brown.
- Enjoy Bharwan Karele with plain paratha or chapati. They are great for travel or as part of an ensemble Indian meal with dal, dahi, rice and more.