Pavakkai Sambar - Bitter Gourd Sambar

Serves 3
Bitter gourd is one vegetable I try to avoid.Despite of the fact that it's extremely healthy,I can never get myself to cook it owing to the bitterness.I found this recipe in a magazine and was very reluctant to try it out.But just as the recipe promised it wasn't bitter and was surprisingly real tasty !

Ingredients :
Bitter gourd - 1 big

Tomato - 1 big(chopped)
Small onions - shallots - 10(chopped)
Toor Dhal - 3 tbsp
Moon Dhal - 3 tbsp
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Coriander leaves - 2 sprigs (chopped finely)
Asafoetida - 3/4 tsp
Tamarind - small marble sized
Jaggery - 2 tsp
To Temper:
oil - 2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - leaves from 1 sprig

Method:
-Chop the Bitter gourd into medium thick rings and remove the seeds.
-In a pressure cooker add the onion,tomato,bitter gourd,the dhals,sambar powder,salt and 1.5 cups of water and cook for 3 whistles.
-In a pan heat the oil and add the tempering ingredients and let them splutter.
-Soak the tamarind in 1/2 a cup of water for 30 minutes.Squeeze the tamarind and extract the juice
-Open the pressure cooker add the tempering and the tamarind juice .Check for salt and add the coriander leaves and jaggery. Let it cook on medium heat for 5 -7 mins.

Sending this to HITS-Diabetic friendly and HITS page