Bitter melon recipe | Hagalakayi palya

Here is a delicious bitter melon recipe from my hometown of Mangaluru. Called Hagalakayi palya in Kannada, this vegetable side dish is sweet, sour and spicy and of course slightly bitter too 🙂 The caramelized flavours of jaggery and tamarind, together work wonders in this recipe. Generous use of fresh coconut adds on to the taste. Read on, give it a try and let me know what you think! Eat it with rice and a dollop of ghee OR mix your rice with creamy yogurt(curd) and mix in the hagalakayi palya. SO GOOD!!

What is a bitter melon?

For those who haven’t grown up eating it, bitter melon is a hard one to conquer! Also called as bitter gourd, this spikey looking vegetable sure looks intimidating at first glance. As the name suggests, it is BITTER! BUT, it also has a unique flavour and is much enjoyed in Asian communities. Every culture has a different way of cooking it.

How to cut and clean bitter melon?

• Cut the vegetable in half.
• Some remove the outer spikes, I do not.
• Remove the seeds, if they are hard. If tender, they can be used in the dish.
• They can then be chopped or sliced finely. I like to chop them fine, as it helps in absorption of flavours, thereby making it taste less bitter.

How to reduce the bitterness of bitter gourd?

To reduce the bitterness to some extent, cut bitter gourd, add a teaspoon of salt and allow it to rest for a while. Bitter gourd starts releasing it’s water. Squeeze out the water which reduces the bitterness to some extent. However, assuming that doing this may reduce it’s nutritional value, I skip this step. Bitter melon recipes from Mangalore/Udupi region use jaggery as a sweetener which does the trick for me!

Method of preparation.

Wash bitter gourd. Some like to scrape off some of the spikes but I just let them be. Slice bitter gourd in half and de-seed them. Chop into tiny pieces.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan, add coconut oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, broken dry red chilli. When mustard splutters add curry leaves, bitter melon, salt, turmeric. Cover and let it cook.

When bitter melon is almost cooked, add tamarind juice, jaggery, red chilli powder. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. It helps the jaggery caramelize and the raw taste of tamarind and jaggery to go away.

Next add the fresh/frozen grated coconut and allow it to cook for a minute. Serve with rice or rotis.

How to serve Hagalakayi palya

Hagalkayi palya pairs well with both rice and rotis. It also tastes great with jowar and bajra roti. It can also be served with curd(yogurt) rice. Click here for curd rice recipe. Do not forget to add a spoonful of ghee to your rice! Rice + ghee + hagalkai palya is heavenly!

Bitter melon recipe | Hagalakayi palya

Shwetha

Sweet and sour South Indian bitter melon recipe pairs great with rice and rotis!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Havyaka, Indian, mangalore

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup finely chopped bitter gourd 1 medium sized bitter gourd
• 3 tbsp jaggery Unrefined Indian sugar
• dry tamarind blackberry/gooseberry sized, soaked in 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp Indian red chilli powder Adjust to taste. Cayenne pepper powder can be added instead.
• 3/4 tsp salt or to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut

Hot oil seasoning/tadka/oggarane

• 1 tbsp oil preferably coconut oil. Check notes for WFPB.
• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp de-husked black gram/urad dal
• 1 dry red chilli
• 1 sprig curry leaves optional

Instructions

 

• Soak dry tamarind in 1/4 cup of water.
• Defrost coconut if using frozen.
• Wash and slice bitter gourd in half.
• Remove the seeds as they may be hard to chew on.
• Chop bitter gourd into tiny pieces.
• Heat a heavy bottomed pan, on medium to high heat. Add oil.
• Add mustard seeds, de-husked black gram, broken dry red chillies into the oil.
• When mustard splutters and black gram turns golden, add curry leaves and chopped bitter melon.
• Add turmeric powder and salt. Cover and let bitter melon cook on medium heat. Stir occasionally.
• When bitter melon is 90% cooked, add jaggery, tamarind water and red chilli powder .

  NOTE: Squeeze the tamarind, to help release it's pulp into the water. Discard the fibrous parts.
• Mix and simmer on low-medium heat for five minutes. It is important to simmer for five minutes to help deepen the flavours of jaggery and tamarind and for the raw flavours to go away.
• Add grated fresh/frozen coconut and stir. Cover and simmer for a minute.
• Turn off the heat. Serve with rice + ghee/yogurt. Can also be served with jowar/bajra/whole wheat rotis.

Notes

• Tamarind concentrate can be used instead of dry tamarind. I haven’t tested this recipe using tamarind concentrate but I would add 1-2 tsp mixed with 1/4 cup water.
• To reduce bitterness, add salt to chopped bitter gourd and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Squeeze out the water and then continue with the above steps. I dont find it necessary as tamarind and jaggery help in reducing the bitterness.
• Acidic ingredients and sweeteners (like tamarind and jaggery) should be added after bitter gourd is at-least 90% cooked, as vegetables take longer to cook in an acidic environment. 
• To make the recipe WFPB, heat a heavy bottomed pan and without adding oil, let the mustard seeds splutter and urad dal turn golden. Then add in the chopped bitter melon and add a dash of water to help it cook. 
• Mangalore style rasam powder can be added towards the end of cooking(along with coconut) for extra flavour. 

Keyword palya, vegan