Pakarkaai Pitlai (Bitter gourd pitlai) is traditional South Indian rice accompaniment prepared with pavakkai, tamaring extract, toor dal and freshly ground spice paste. Healthy bitter gourd turned into a delicious kuzhambu. I would say pavakkai Pitlai is cousin of Arachuvitta sambar😂
Pavakkai Pitlai is yet another recipe from my Amma’s cook book. As a child, I always hated Bitter gourd, though its a healthy vegetable. If I see Bitter gourd in fridge, I go crazy, even without tasting it. I will say a big no. I always want some other dish when bitter gourd is cooked at home. Rasavangi is yet another tasty rice accompaniment
One day I was with Amma in the kitchen when she was preparing pavakkai pitlai. I saw her adding a tsp of jaggery to the dish. I was so happy seeing jaggery, and tasted it that day. After tasting the dish, I liked it, and surprisingly didn’t feel the bitterness. From that day onwards I started eating Pitali. Later when I started cooking, I realized even without Jaggery pavakkai Pitalai tastes good. But i started liking the dish because of jaggery, so I add it even now 🙂 Pavakkai Gojju is yet another tasty recipe with pavakkai
If you are interested for some tasty South Indian kuzhambu varieties in TMF,
Kuzhambu varieties with tamarind
Kuzhambu varieties without tamarind
Ingredients:
Bitter gourd – 1
Turmeric powder – 1/8 tsp
Toor Dal – 1/2 cup
Chickpea/Channa – 1/3 cup (Soak Channa overnight/ in hot water for 4 hours)
sambar powder – 1 tsp + 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves – Few
Tamarind – small Lemon size
Jaggery – 2 tbsp
Asofedtida – generous pinch
Salt – as needed
For Grinding:
Grated Coconut – 1/4 cup
Red Chillies – 2 ( Adjust according to your spice level)
Coriander Seeds – 1 tbsp
Channa dal – 1/2 tbsp
For Seasoning:
Oil – 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds – 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek – 1/8 tsp
Method:
- Soak channa dal overnight or 5-6 hours in hot water
- Soak toor dal for 1 hour in hot water
- Soak the tamarind in warm water for 10 -15 minutes and extract the pulp. Pressure cook the toor dal and channa, and keep it aside. (To save time I generally cook both together)
- Dry roast red chillies, coriander seeds and channa dal till they turn golden brown color, and switch off. After it comes to room temperature add coconut and grind everything to a fine paste by adding water and keep it aside
- Add turmeric powder and small pieces of tamarind (Adding both removes the bitterness) to bitter gourd and cook it (I microwaved for 5 minutes). After it comes to room temperature squeeze it well and rinse twice
- Add oil to the pan, when the Oil is hot add mustard seed and fenugreek. let it splutter. Add the cooked bitter gourd and saute for 3-4 mins. Add tamarind extract, Sambar powder, hing, turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for 10- 12 minutes till the raw smell goes off tamarind
- Add the cooked toor dal and channa, cook for another 10 – 12 mins till you get the aroma. Add grounded paste and jaggery; cook for 7-8 minutes. switch off garnish with coriander leaves
Pakarkaai Pitlai | Pavakkai (Bitter Gourd) Pitlai
Ingredients
- Bitter gourd - 1
- Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
- Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
- Chickpea/Channa - 1/3 cup Soak Channa overnight/ in hot water for 4 hours
- Sambar Powder - 1 tsp + 1/2 tsp
- Curry Leaves - Few
- Tamarind - small Lemon size
- Jaggery - 2 tbsp
- Asofedtida - generous pinch
- Salt - as needed
- For Grinding:
- Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
- Red Chillies - 2 Adjust according to your spice level
- Coriander Seeds - 1 tbsp
- Channa dal - 1/2 tbsp
- For Seasoning:
- Oil - 1 tsp
- Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
- Fenugreek - 1/8 tsp
Instructions
- Soak channa dal overnight or 5-6 hours in hot water
- Soak toor dal for 1 hour in hot water
- Soakthe tamarind in warm water for 10 -15 minutes and extract the pulp. Pressure cook the toor dal and channa, and keep it aside. (To save time I generally cook both together)
- Dry roast red chillies, coriander seeds and channa dal till they turn golden brown color, and switch off. After it comes to room temperature, add coconut and grind everything to a paste by adding water and keep it aside
- Add turmeric powder and small pieces of tamarind (Adding both removes the bitterness) to bitter gourd and cook it (I microwaved for 5 minutes). After it comes to room temperature squeeze it well and rinse twice
- Add oil to the pan, when the Oil is hot add mustard seed and fenugreek. let it splutter. Add the cooked bitter gourd and saute for 3-4 mins. Add tamarind extract, Sambar powder, hing, turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for 10 - 12 minutes till the raw smell goes off tamarind
- Add the cooked toor dal and channa, cook for another 10 - 12 mins till you get the aroma. Add grounded paste and jaggery; cook for 7-8 minutes. switch off garnish with coriander leaves
Notes
- Bitter gourd can be cooked in the pitalai pan instead of microwaving separately
- Curry powder can be grind with coconut and made into a paste instead of making fresh paste for pitalai
- Channa and toor dal can also be cooked together
- Recently I started cooking this in instant pot. Cook toor dal and channa together in manual mode, high temperature for 25 minutes. After the pressure relases naturally follow all other steps in sauté mode
- Adjust the chickpea according to your taste
- Kala channa can be used instead of chickpea
Looks delicious!I didnt know such a dish could be made outa bitter gourd!!
Thanks Shannu:) try them sometime
Yes I will!
‘ve never had bitter gourd but I do love bitter greens like rappini, mustard greens etc.. I bet I would like it. Amazing what a tsp of jaggery does, guess it’s like that song from about the spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down.
Try them Suzanne, if you like bitterness I am sure you will like bitter gourd. Jaggery is palm sugar, you can use brown sugar instead
I love eating bitter gourd but never had it this way!! Going to try it soon!
Do try Ami, if you like bitter gourd I sure you wil enjoy this recipe
Interesting recipe
Thanku:)
Oh my, I’ve never even heard of bitter gourd. I didn’t know you could eat gourds! If I could find all of these ingredients, I would try this, but I’ll never find them in the rural area that I live in. Too bad. Thank you for sharing, though. I will add this to my Pinterest “Indian Food” board. Peace!
Thanks for your lovely comment Jeanne:)
You always remind me that there is a world of food out there that I know nothing about! Love it!
Thanks for the lovely comment dear Lori:) I am learning a lot from you
Awe, thank you Vidya!!
🙂
Thank you for including this wonderful recipe. Just the pictures would have been fabulous, but now I can make it for myself.
Thanks for your lovely comment:)
Lovely dish Vidya 🙂
Thanks Linda:)
I love to learn differnt varieties using bittergourd as its healthy and this one looks perfect. wil try asap and let you know…this is must try for me…
Happy to know that you liked it:) Do try and let me know
I’ve never tried bitter gourd but I love the tamarind in this dish and it sounds really tasty.
Thanks Corina:) ya tamrind gives nice flavor to the dish
This looks wonderful, I can actually taste all the different flavors just reading through the ingredients. Love jaggrey 🙂
Thanks Loretta:) jaggery is my favorite too
I am not familiar with Bitter Gourd, so I have no idea what this would taste like.
It tastes delicious:) can’t feel the bitterness in taste
Delicious I too love pavakkai pitala, very nice
Thanks Swathi:) happy to know that you too like pitalai
Vidya prepared this for lunch today oh my it was delicious…thanx a ton for this wonderful recipe vidya. …
Very happy to hear Chitra:)thanks for trying