Bitter Gourd has its own identity. Not everyone can take the first bite of ‘green-skinned’ gourd and appreciate the unique bitter taste. People usually don’t relish the bitter taste and often try to exclude them from their meal. Few people find it so bitter that they can't even tolerate the taste and end up hating it. But this vegetable is loaded with so many health benefits that one cannot afford to skip it.
Being staple to Asian cuisine, this tropical vine is packed with several key nutrients such as vitamin C, A, folate and antioxidants. It's also considered beneficial for long-term blood sugar control. Being low in calories and high in fibre also makes bitter gourd an amazing ingredient for weight-loss diet. According to Healthline, it also helps in lowering cholesterol levels and have cancer-fighting properties.
Therefore, if you want to add bitter gourd to your family’s daily diet, without hearing any excuses, here are a few easy tricks to reduce the bitterness of the healthy vegetable.
1. Rub It With Salt
This is the best way to cut down the bitterness from the gourd. You just have to slice the veggies into two halves and rub them with lots of salt in a bowl. Then transfer them to a bowl and let it stay for twenty to thirty minutes. And squeeze out the juice before adding it into the cooking pan. Boiling in salt water for a couple of minutes or more can also help in reducing its bitterness.
2. Scrape The Rugged Surface And Remove The Seeds
The outer surface of the bitter gourd contains a lot of bitterness as compared to the other parts of the vegetable, so you can scrape off the rugged surface and then with the help of a peeler make the outer surface smooth. This will remove a lot of bitterness. And if you are still not satisfied, try removing the seeds before cooking as this also reduces the bitterness to a considerable extent.
3. Adding Jaggery Or Sugar
Adding jaggery or sugar to the bitter gourd dish before taking off from the heat is also an easy solution of reducing the bitterness to an extent but make sure to add in appropriate quantity depending on the type of dish you are making as its natural flavour can also get affected.
4. Diluting In Yogurt
Another easy and effective way to remove the extra bitterness from the gourd is to dilute the pieces into yogurt for at least an hour before cooking. This method is not very popular but it's definitely effective. Try it once and you will realize. Make sure you wash the veggie after taking out from the yogurt bowl.
5. Vinegar And Sugar Mixture
Pour in a mixture containing equal amounts of sugar and vinegar to the chopped pieces of bitter gourd. This will help in reducing the bitterness without affecting the natural taste of the dish. Just add the mixture and keep it aside for fifteen to twenty minutes and wash the pieces with clean water before cooking.
Try these easy hacks to reduce the bitterness and add the healthy bitter gourd to your family’s diet. These tricks will help in reducing the bitterness to a great extent without affecting the natural flavour and nutrients of the bitter gourd.