Karele ke chiche ki sabzi, as the name suggest is dry sabzi that is cooked using peels of Karela or bitter melon/bitter gourd. Here's recipe of making this dry sabzi/curry.
Karela is also known as Bitter melon is slightly bitter in taste, and most of the people either love it or not. I am from the first group, I love it in all forms…Yupp! Even the juice. Some eat karela because they like the taste and some because it is quite healthy. I will talk about health benefits in later part of this post.
As I said I love karela so and everything about it. DO you know you can use it’s peel too? You can use karele ke chilke in making poori or paratha dough. There is some sweet that is made using karele ke chilke. Then there is Karele ke chilke ki bhujia a sabzi that my mother makes. Today I am sharing the same recipe but with one change I added chopped potatoes as well.
If you are trying to include more karela or bitter melon dishes you can try this recipe, but take care to cook them in proper way.
How to Cook Karela
Karela as it is a bitter vegetable, but you can cut down the bitterness to some extent by keeping it salted for sometimes. Also boiling the karela also helps in reducing bitter taste.
Health Benefits of Karela or bitter melon
- It purifies the blood.
- Regular intake of bitter gourd/ karela juice helps in stabilising fluctuating blood sugar. It is considered good for diabetics.
- Karela is a natural antioxidant. It helps in removing toxins from the body. It also helps to rejuvenate the body cells and prevents formation of free radicals.
The karele ke chilke ki sabzi tastes best with Dal and paratha combination. That’s how I mostly serve that anyways. Here are few other ways to cook karela Achari Aloo Karela Sabzi, Crispy Karela Stir Fry.
📖 Recipe

Ingredients
- 1 cup of karela/ bitter melon peels
- 2 Potatoes finely chopped
- 75 g onion chopped
- 3-4 green chilli
- 1 Tsp ginger grated
- salt to taste
- 2 Tbsp Mustard Oil
Instructions
- Wash karela’s and peel with the help of peeler and knife. Now apply the salt on both separately (You can cook karela using recipes given above in the post) and keep them for minimum 1hour plus.
- Wash the peels and pat dry on a kitchen napkin.
- Heat mustard oil till it starts to smoke. Allow it too cool a bit and sauté 2-3 green chillies in it. Remove the chillies from the pan keep them aside.
- Now add cumin seeds. Let them splutter and add one finely chopped green chilli, ginger and chopped onion.
- Fry them for 3-4 minutes and add potatoes. Cook for another 6-7 minutes till potato soften.
- Add washed karele ke chilke ?bitter melon peel and cook for 6-7 minutes.
- Switch off the heat. Top with fried chilli and serve it hot with Paratha or Rice
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