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.
