Karela Fry – Crispy, No Deep Fry and a Must Try Recipe
Karela in english is known as Bitter Gourd or Bitter Melon. Karela - it's definitely not liked by most of the people I know 😀 , may be because of it's bitterness. It neither was my favourite veggie earlier too. But, now karela is on my list of most loved vegetables. I often cook karela recipes in different styles. But, this Karela Fry recipe became one of my most liked and loved vegetable.
Though the name of the recipe is Karela 'Fry' but this version of recipe is not a deep fried one. It is shallow fried, so don't worry if you don't like oily food, neither do I 😊 .
Karela is very good choice for diabetics as well because research says that Karela helps to lower body's blood sugar. Therefore, we can say, Karela or bitter gourd or bitter melon is a friend for Diabetics. So I think Karela can be a great choice to include in everyone's Meals too. We don't have to wait for diabetes to knock our door, better start eating Karela early and it may prevent Diabetes. This Karela Fry recipe is suitable for Vegans too.
The Karela Fry Story
As with most of my recipes, there is a short story behind how I fell in love with this Karela recipe. Sometime back we headed to a restaurant and everyone was ordering something of their own choice as usual and suddenly voice of my husband turned in and he said "I want to order Karela Fry" 😀. We all were like who eats Karela in restaurants. With due respect to all the choices, we decided to order a bowl of Karela Fry. But then, to my surprise, we ended up repeating the same Karela Fry recipe order again, because it was so awesome.
Because we can't go to the restaurant that often, I decided to prepare similar restaurant style Karela Fry Recipe at home. But again, I din't want it to be deep fried and I thought let me prepare this Karela Fry recipe with shallow fried technique.
Even the shallow fried Karela Fry recipe tastes awesome and we don't have to use a lot of oil. So let's check the recipe for this awesome Vegan friendly and Diabetics suitable recipe and I am sure most of you will love to have this one.
I have another recipe for you if you are restaurant style food lover but want to try such recipes at home. Try this Tandoori Style Paneer Tikka Recipe which is cooked at home on stove and tastes just like restaurant style tandoori paneer tikka. Also, served with cabbage salad and mint chutney - recipes on the same blog.
To check many more such tasty food recipes in video formats, you can also visit FoodQuench’s YouTube Channel.
- 350 grams Bitter Gourd (Karela) (5 medium sized)
- 1 tablespoon Salt (to apply on Karela for draining water)
- 100 grams Tomato (2 medium size)
- 50 grams Onion (1 medium size)
- 6.5 tablespoons Oil
- 1/2 tablespoon Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 tablespoon Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1/2 tablespoon Cumin Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Red Chilli Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 1/4 tablespoon Salt (as per taste)
Rinse karela (bitter gourd) and cut into two half. Then cut karela into thin slices and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Now add 1 tablespoon salt to karela, mix well and keep it aside for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, rinse tomatoes and onion. Slice tomato and onion into half moon shape. Again cut the half moon sized ring of onions into 3 pieces and tomatoes into 2 pieces.
- Cut onion into thin slices, and tomatoes to medium thick slices
Once you are done with chopping onion and tomatoes, utilize remaining time to knead dough for roti, paratha or phulke while Karela mixed with salt is resting.
After 30 minutes, squeeze out karela slices with the help of both hands to remove water contents formed because of salt. This helps to remove bitterness.
Now add 2 tablespoon oil to non-stick pan and add some karela slices and shallow fry on medium flame until karela slices become crisp.
- For mentioned quantity of karelas you have to repeat the above step 3 times (depending on size of the pan).
Don’t add all the 6 tablespoons of oil and all sliced karela together as it would take more time for karela to become crisp.
All karela chips are ready now.
Now add 1/2 tablespoon oil to the same non-stick pan. Add cumin seeds and allow to splutter.
Then add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and sauté for a minute.
Finally add thin sliced onion to the pan and cook for about 3 minutes on medium flame.
You can cook onion first and then add all spices mentioned above. I haven't used any sabji masala or garam masala. But, you can add garam masala or sabji masala if you wish to.
Once onion are cooked, add tomatoes and mix well.
Close the lid and cook for 3 more minutes on medium flame.
Now add regular red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder and mix well.
Finally add shallow fried karela chips, salt and mix well. Close lid and cook for just another 2 to 3 minutes on medium flame.
Make sure you add karela chips at last when you are ready to serve the recipe. So you can enjoy the crispiness of karela in this recipe.
Karela fry is ready.
This tasty Karela Fry recipe can be served with any Indian flat breads like roti, phulke, naan, tandoori roti or plain parathas. You can aslo serve this Karela fry with Jowar, Bajra or Raagi roti. Enjoy!