Easy 15 Minutes Stuffed Bitter Gourd or Bharwa Karela

Read my earlier post regarding ready-to-cook curry paste & pickle spice mix to prepare the mixtures and store them to reduce the cooking time. You can make them ahead and store them for further use.

Normally it takes almost 1 hour to prepare stuffed karela in this way. But if you have these two basic ingredients readily available then you can cook this in 20 - 25 minutes plus minutes of preparation time. Just imagine you have saved 40 - 45 minutes by smart cooking.

Similarly, stuffed brinjals, stuffed capsicum, stuffed tinda, etc are prepared quickly.

Select the smaller ones as they are perfect for this dish and take less cooking time. Also, they are not hard and mature ones you will have to remove the seeds from the karela and then stuff it.

Let us make this bharwa karela or stuffed bitter gourd or bharwa karela.

Easy 15 Minutes Stuffed Karela or Bitter Gourd

Ipsa Faujdar

Stuffed Karela is made by stuffing spices in the slits made on karela. Tie the stuffed karela with thread and stir fry them on low flame.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Keto Recipe, Sabzi & Curry, Side Dish

Cuisine Indian, North Indian

Servings 4 People

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 5 tbsp Oil
• 250 gm Bitter Gourd
• 3 tbsp Curry Paste (cooked paste on onion, garlic, ginger, chillies, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder)
• 2 tbsp Pickle Spice Mix (refer link above or instuction below)
• ½ tsp Aamchur/ Dry mango powder
• ½ tsp Salt as per taste

Instructions

 

Preparing the stuffing

• To make pickle spice, Dry roast these spices and grind to a fine paste. 2 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsp fennel seeds, ½ tsp yellow mustard halves, ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds, ¼ tsp (pinch) onion seeds (optional).
• Add 3 - 4 tbsp ready to use curry paste (refer link in text), 2 tbsp pickle spice mix, salt and dry mango/ aamchur in a mixing bowl and mix well all ingredients
  
• Wash and peel the skin of the bitter gourd. Make slits vertically from one side.
  
• Carefully do this to make a pocket only to stuff the masala mix.
  

Stuffing the Karela

• Take one spoon of mixture and try to fill as much enters into it. Repeat for all and keep aside on a plate.
  
• Take a small thread and try to tie the karela as shown in picture.
  
• The idea is to seal the karela so that the masalas won't come out while frying. Some excess masala will come out in this process. But don't worry about it.
  

Stir-frying the stuffed karels

• Heat 5 - 6 tbsp oil and once oil is hot place stuffed karela into the pan. cover with lead and cook on medium low heat. Occasionally flip the karela with help of a tong.
  
• If you have more quantity karela then do it in batches of 5 - 6 at a time. Don't over crowd the pan. It takes 8 - 10 minutes on low flame to cook the stuffed karela completely. If you have more in quantity or in large size karela then it might take bit longer to cook the whole lot.
• Bharwa karela is ready to serve.
  

Notes

 

Happy Cooking Friends. 

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