Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Bitter melon soup

I remembered hating bitter melon as a kid, I couldn't stand the taste. And I forgot what triggered me to try (probably it was because my Mom just insisted and made me try ? hahaha I dunno) but I became more accepting of it, and now as adult I just love it. Bitter melon is a very healthy vegetable, good for lowering cholesterol, it's considered "cool" (leung) for your internal body. It is one of those that you don't like it...you don't like it....and then once you get used to its taste you love it.

Cooking dinner for two, I usually make some main dish (meat or fish) or some stir fries to be eaten with rice, and then either steamed/stired vegetable or soup. This usually feed us dinner, and then lunch/dinner the next day. Not too bad, so I cook one day, then we eat left-overs for the next day. This works out ok. I usually try to cook at least 1 or 2 times a week. In between, we may eat out with coworkers at work, and usually we eat out on weekends, and grocery shop for the following week.

PREP:
+ Boil a pot of water (if you have chicken broth, you can use them)
+ Wash 3 medium sized bitter melons. Half them, scoop out the seeds.
+ Cut bitter melon into thin slices as shown in picture (or you can cut them into squares)
+ 1 stalk of green onion, cut into pieces of length 1/2 to 1 inch
+ 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into thin slices

COOKING:
+ Once water is boiled, add the bitter melons into the pot.
+ Add chicken (not particular any time, you can add right after or wait 1-2 minutes)
+ Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes, then add the green onions.
+ Add 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste. (I also add 1/2 tsp of the vegetable seasoning powder for better taste)
+ If you like pepper like me, add some ground black pepper into the pot right before turning off heat.

4 comments:

caroline tran said...

oooh! great blog! yay, I have a place to go when I decide to cook. :D

Anonymous said...

Hi Caroline!!! Thanks for visiting and commenting. Yay, try them out sometimes, I usually post easy/daily cooking recipes b/c that's what most of us busy bees cook at home anyways.

Right Way to Eat said...

I actually grew up liking bitter melon. The soup is very enjoyable, but cooking it stir fried as a stand alone dish is delicious. Thanks for the recipe!

MyCollegeKitchen said...

Hi pepsimonster:
Oh yeah I love it stir fried as well, different ways. Now that you remind me, I should make bitter melon stir fried. Hehehe, I should make the hubbie eat more bitter melon to ease all the cholesterol from his pork belly eating habit.LOL.