Stuffed Karela (Bitter Melon) Keto Friendly

As most of you know, I am following a Keto diet for health reasons.

What is Keto Diet?

The main aim of the keto diet is to lower the amount of carbs you intake but increase the amount of fats. This is often referred to as the Low Carbs diet. When you don’t take any carbs, your body enters into a phase called ketosis. When this happens, a number of good ketones are released which will encourage your body to use your body fat to convert it into energy. The internet has lots of information about this diet and I am still getting used to changing my lifestyle and over the coming weeks, I will share more information and more recipes.

Since joining the Keto diet, I have been looking for ideas to make some interesting and easy Keto dishes. I  had these stuffed Karela (bitter melon) with the  almond, coconut and psyllium husk tortillas which I lightly fried.  I do make stuffed karelas regularly  but to make the curry keto friendly, I changed a couple of ingredients.

As most of you know, I am following a Keto diet for health reasons.

What is Keto Diet?

The main aim of the keto diet is to lower the amount of carbs you intake but increase the amount of fats. This is often referred to as the Low Carbs diet. When you don’t take any carbs, your body enters into a phase called ketosis. When this happens, a number of good ketones are released which will encourage your body to use your body fat to convert it into energy. The internet has lots of information about this diet and I am still getting used to changing my lifestyle and over the coming weeks, I will share more information and more recipes.

Since joining the Keto diet, I have been looking for ideas to make some interesting and easy Keto dishes. I  had these stuffed Karela (bitter melon) with the  almond, coconut and psyllium husk tortillas which I lightly fried.  I do make stuffed karelas regularly  but to make the curry keto friendly, I changed a couple of ingredients.

Ingredients (serves 2):

For the stuffing:

• • 2 tbls Almond flour
  • 1 tbls ground peanuts
  • 2 tbls cumin powder
  • 2 tbls coriander powder
  • 2 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Chili powder
  • 4 gloves of crushed garlic
  • Fresh Ginger, 1 tablespoon crushed (optional)
  • 1 tbls lemon juice.
  • 1 or 2 tablespoons jaggery
  • 4-5 tablespoons cooking oil (some to add to the stuffing masala)
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

For the curry:

• 2 karelas
• 1 onion

Method:

1.   Wash and peel the karelas using a potato peeler or sharp knife and cut each karela into 3 or 4 long pieces and slice them across. Remove any hard seeds that may be in the Karelas. Put them in a saucepan of water and add a teapoon of salt and boil the karelas until they are soft.

2.  Remove them from the water and squeeze out any remaining fluid from them and leave them aside. Chop the onions and leave them aside.

3.  Prepare the mixture for the stuffing. Mix the almond flour, ground peanuts, cumin and coriander powder, salt , chili powder, jaggery, crushed ginger and garlic in a saucepan. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil and stir the mixture.  Warm this mixture in the microwave for 2 minutes but stir it after a minutes to enable the spices to be warmed evenly.

 

4. Now fill the masala in each piece of karela.

5.  Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and add one tablespoon of mustard seeds to it.   Once the mustard seeds finish popping, add the onions to the oil and stir well. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the  karelas to sit on top of the onions.  Top these with any remaining masala .

6.  Once this has cooked for 3 minutes, turn the karelas one by one and cook for a further 5 minutes.

7. Add the lemon juice  to the curry and serve it hot  with chapattis or the keto friendly tortillas.

A lot of people don’t try karela as they think it’s bitter but after cooking and with the addition of spices, it has a lovely taste. Do you like karela?

You may wish to see other Keto friendly recipes from my blog:

• Chili paneer
• Coconut and almond dumplings (Muthias)
• Aubergine slices topped with Pizza type fillings Keto friendly
• Aubergine Layer Bake (keto friendly)

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