I never am a fan of veggies..that is just me..and the irony of things, I have to learn to love this particular vegetable. I have read how good it is to lower blood sugar.

Growing up I distinctly remember my mom cook it with eggs, tomatoes, shrimp and cubed pork..but I never tried it, just the shrimp.. This veggie is just known to be bitter, and if one does not know how to prepare it, you will get the bitter part so much.

Last night, we got some of these bitter gourd..in my Filipino language we call this ampalaya. Got also some frozen bitter melon leaves.

Found a smoothie recipe and we tried it last night..I was so afraid how it will come out..but to my surprise it was good! Can't even detect the bitter melon in it.

For this smoothie we used:
bitter melon, apples, jackfruit, calamondin juice with honey, coconut milk

First prepare bitter melon: boil water; slice the bitter melon, remove the seeds and the pith, then blanch bitter melon for about 2 minutes, set aside, slice and sprinkle some calamondin juice..or you can also use lemon juice in a bottle, set aside

Slice some apples, and sprinkle again with calamondin juice or lemon juice

Slice some jackfruit - we also called this langka. Availabe either in a bottle or can with syrup. I just took some and sliced it further.

Combine all of these in your blender, add half coconut milk. I think it might get too thick if I pour all that is in the can. Add the calamondin juice with honey..or just some honey. I had to use calamondin juice with honey concentrate since that is what I have available in my kitchen. Add some ice or water before blending...well it is cold season already, so I just added some water.

We were surprised it tastes good! For someone like me who never likes bitter melon

My next cooking experiment with bitter melon project is to cook it with shrimps and coconut milk or boiled chicken with the bitter gourd leaves or sauteed mung beans with bitter melon leaves.....still studying other ways to cook this bitter melon...got to get around to like this veggie.

Tarev, that certainly sounds like an interesting combination of ingredients !

Hi Tarev,

We grew up eating bitter melon, but it is definitely an acquired taste. My DH loves it and can't get enough of it. My mom grows them and I've grown them and will sow seeds this spring. My neighbor is from India and I've gotten seeds of the Indian bitter melon from her.

My dad stir-fry the melon with sliced chicken or any meat, onions, with blackbean sauce. That's our favorite way to cook them. I have friends from the Philippines at church and I'll have to ask them how they cook these.

I've not eaten the leaves or make a drink from them. Let me know what other recipes you come up with.

Hi Betsy! Your Dad's recipe sounds yummy..have to try that too one of these days...does he blanch the bitter melon too before he stir fries them?

My friends who also cook this bitter melon says the trick is to blanch it, they add some salt.

Yes and no: depending on how bitter you want to eat them. I usually don't - my DH likes them bitter.
Another recipe: melons sliced in half and stuffed with mixture of pork, shrimp, waterchest nut, green onion, soy sauce, sugar. (I'm going to ask my dad for exact recipe). Then the are steamed. My mouth is watering thinking about this - haven't eaten this for long while. Time to buy bitter melon😀

Tonight I sauteed bittermelon with garlic, onions and shrimp, added some eggs. It tastes good! But I can sense the bitterness this time since this are slices, not sure my hubby will like it, so I added coconut milk. Perfecto! Yum!Yum!Yum!

I have not tried this one but there was an interesting recipe for bitter melon//gourd combined with pumpkin:
http://nasilemaklover.blogspot...