Karela cooked in Punjabi style, bharwa karela. There are many variations stuffings for the karela recipe. In this north Indian style Karela recipe I have made Bharwa karela with fried onion and spices stuffing.
Bharwa karela is a delicious, healthy and a super simple recipe. I know some of the people who do not love karela or rather hate it, because of it’s strong bitter taste. But, believe me, once you know how to cook karela in right way and acquire the taste slight bitterness, the Karela sabji can easily be one of your favourites.
As a child, I hated it too but once I started eating, I simply love karela. Karela sabji makes an excellent side with any Indian curry and easily stored in the fridge for up to a week. So making a double batch and consuming it often with your Indian meals is a great way to include this delicious Punjabi style bharwa karela recipe.
You can even use Karela peel or karela fry recipe with the peel of karela you prepare using this recipe. This Karela ke chilke and Aloo bhurji recipe is what I make using the Karela scrapes.
Health Benefits of Karela
- Karela is good for purifying blood and is considered good for diabetic people. Along with being rich in minerals like potassium, iron and calcium Karela is a great source of dietary fibre and
- It is a rich source of vitamin C, B1, B2, and B3. It also contains minerals like zinc, alkaloids, manganese, and folic acid in good amount. So once you get past of the bitter taste of karela it is a tasty and healthy addition to your meals.
How to Reduce bitterness from Karela / Bitter gourd
- For removing bitterness from karela, the first step is to remove the peel with a small knife. Scrape off the peel as I shown in the video of stuffed karela below.
- If seeds are too big and ripe remove them.
- Rub peeled karela with salt and keep them for 2-3 hours and after that wash them nicely and wipe with a kitchen towel before cooking. This will reduce the bitterness of karela to some extent.
- Some people keep karela dipped in boiled salted water for sometimes which is also effective in reducing bitterness from karela, but I personally rub them with salt and proceed with the making karela recipe.
For making this North Indian style Punjabi Onion bharwa karela, I prepared the karela with above method of salting it to remove the bitterness. A delicious onion stuffing is made for the karela by caramelising sliced onions on slow heat and adding lots of Indian spices and stuffing the karela with this onion stuffing.
Stuffed Karela or bharwa karela is then tied with a thread so as to prevent the stuffing from spilling out and fried in a wok or pan. In this recipe I cooked it using pan frying method you can deep fry them after tying thread, if you wish so. Traditionally, bharwa karela is made by deep frying. I used pan fried it just to keep the oil intake in check.
Even if you are a karela hater, give this Karela recipe a try once, you might start liking it :). If you love karela there is another karela recipe which you might like Crisp Fried Karela, Karele ke Chilke ki Sabzi, Achari Aloo Karela
Punjabi Style Stuffed Karela Sabzi Recipe Video in Hindi
If you love Bharwan/ stuffed Indian vegetables you might want to try out other bharwa recipes, Stuffed Tomato/bharwa tamatar (microwave recipe), Stuffed Shimla Mirch recipe, Stuffed Red Chilli Pickle
If you try this recipe of karela and like it, click a pic and use the hashtag #MyTastyCurry — I would love to see your delicious dishes on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter! Also, you can pin this recipe on Pinterest if you like it and plan to cook it later.
📖 Recipe
Bharwa Karela - Punjabi Karela Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g karela bitter gourd/chinese melons
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- salt as per taste
- 2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 Tsp black pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon amchur powder
- 1 teaspoon fennel powder/saunf powder
- 3 medium sized onions finely sliced
- 2-3 green chilli chopped
- 3 tablespoon Oil
Instructions
- Scrape off the peels from karela with the help of small knife.
- Make a vertical slit in each karela and discard the seeds if they are big or overripe.
- Sprinkle salt over all karela and rub them nicely with the salt.
- Keep them aside for 2-3 hours and wash off the salt. Dry them with kitchen napkin.
- While karela are put aside with salt you can prepare the onion stuffing for karela.
- Heat one tablespoon oil in a pan and add green chilli along with sliced onions.
- Cook the onions on slow heat till they are well cooked and soft but not browned.
- Add all spice powdered , mix and remove from heat.
- Now take the karela and stuff the onion stuffing as shown in the video above.
- Tie them with a thread and prepare all karelas like that.
- Now heat rest of the oil in a pan and fry the karelas from all side on medium low heat.
- Covers them in between. When Karla’s are soft and slightly charred from all side and switch off the heat.
- Serve them with chapati, paratha or rice.
Apurwa Bijlani
This looks good. I will definitely try it, 🙂
Punam Paul
Learnt about advantage and medicinal benefits. Thus thought to cook it at home. Looking for an easy recipe as I don't want to invest time in a vegi which I never liked. Found an easy recipe on your site. Great! Will cook soon...