I love Bitter Gourd. It is called Ampalaya in the Philippines. I cannot remember when did I exactly start loving it but I can remember how I love to eat my mother’s pinakbet (vegetables with shrimp paste) and bitter gourd sauteed in egg, onion and tomato. It truly tastes delicious when the bitterness of Amplaya is mixed with egg or shrimp paste (bagoong alamang).
It is delicious for me but not for my entire family especially my children. My husband eats it but not really a fan. I felt a little bit uneasy thinking that my family is missing the nutrients that an Ampalaya gives. I was wondering why they could not like it as I do. Why they could not find the deliciousness in Ampalaya as I did? I knew I had to do something. So, I started including Ampalaya dishes in our menu almost every day especially when I learned that my daughter had slight Anemia.
The Amplaya recipe that my family liked best is my Amplaya Crunchies. I filmed myself cooking it and I shared it with you in this article. But before we go to that exciting part. Let me enumerate to you the benefits of eating ampalaya and why we should eat Amapalaya as often as we can.
What are the benefits from eating Ampalaya ?
- The leaves and the fruits are said to be rich in vitamins A, B & C.
2. The juice extracted from boiling the leaves of Ampalaya can cure many ailments some of which are coughs, fever & diarrhea.
3. The bitterness of the juice extracted from the leaves can also purge intestinal parasites.
4. Warmed leaves of Ampalaya can be patched to burns, wounds and other skin diseases such as athlete’s foot and ring worm for curing. Ampalaya leaves can be warmed by soaking in hot water or by steaming.
5. The fruit of Bitter Gourd has high content of vitamins C which makes it a good anti-oxidant that protects our cells from damages.
6. It is a good food for diabetic because it can lower blood sugar and it is also good for anemic people because the leaves are rich in iron which helps in production and circulation of blood.
7. Lastly, Ampalaya can make a delicious delicacy. Try it.
My eldest daughter when she entered puberty was diagnosed with slight Anemia and was advised to drink iron supplements. Instead of giving her a pill or a capsule, I enticed her to eat Ampalaya. During those time I mixed ampalaya in the food I cooked almost every day. She and my whole family began to be comfortable with the fruit but not with the leaves which contain more iron that she needed so I tried a recipe that she and her sibling was not able to say no. I made a crunchy ampalaya leaves. Click the link below to watch the video on how I did it.
https://youtu.be/H47Xoh0hvwI
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References
Herbal Medicine: Ampalaya (Momordica charantia)
http://www.philippineherbalmedicine.org/
What you need to know about ‘Ampalaya’
