Skip to content
Handiہانڈیاردو
Sabzi (vegetables)

Karela Pyaz Recipe

کریلے پیاز بنانے کا طریقہ

Karela pyaz with the bitterness tamed: salted and squeezed bitter gourd fried crisp, then cooked down with a pile of sweet golden onions.
WhatsApp
Illustration of Karela Pyaz

Prep

20 min

Cook

35 min

Marinate / soak

30 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Medium

Spice

Medium hot

Karela pyaz is the dish that turns bitter gourd sceptics. The karelay are scraped, salted and squeezed to pull out much of the bitterness, fried until crisp at the edges, then cooked with nearly their weight in onions. The onions go jammy and sweet, a little amchur adds sourness, and the three tastes balance out.

Ingredients

4 servings

For 4 servings

Measures

Method

  1. Scrape the rough outer skin off the karelay with a knife. Slice them into thin rounds and remove any large, hard seeds.

  2. Rub the slices with 1 teaspoon of salt and leave for 30 minutes. Squeeze them hard by the handful to press out the bitter juice, rinse once and squeeze dry again.

    ⏱ 30 min

  3. Heat the oil in a karahi on medium-high heat. Fry the karela slices in two batches until they are golden and crisp at the edges. Lift out with a slotted spoon.

    ⏱ 10 min

  4. Pour off all but about 4 tablespoons of the oil. Add the onions and fry on medium heat, stirring, until soft and light golden.

    ⏱ 10 min

  5. Add the ginger-garlic paste, tomato, green chillies, salt, red chilli, turmeric and coriander powder. Bhuno until the tomato melts and the oil separates.

    ⏱ 5 min

  6. Add the fried karelay, amchur and sugar if using. Toss well, cover and leave on low heat so the flavours mix (dum).

    ⏱ 8 min

Tips for the best result

  • Small, dark green karelay with tight ridges are less bitter and more tender than large pale ones.
  • Keep the scraped skin: dried in the sun and fried, it is used in karela stuffings in many homes.

Common mistakes

  • Skipping the salting and squeezing. It is the step that removes most of the bitterness.
  • Forgetting that the karelay are already salted. Taste before adding the masala salt.

How to serve

Serve with roti and a bowl of daal; it is also good with plain rice and daal.

Storing and reheating

Keeps 3 days in the fridge and tastes even better on day two. Reheat in a dry pan.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
310kcal
Protein
3g
Fat
28g
Carbs
16g
Fibre
5.9g
Sodium
1030mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (100% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 41

Whole dish ≈ Rs 165 · 54% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Karela Pyaz: questions people ask

How do I remove the bitterness from karela?

Scrape the skin, salt the slices for 30 minutes and squeeze out the juice, then fry them. Cooking with plenty of onion and a sour note like amchur balances what is left.

Can I add qeema to karela pyaz?

Yes, karela qeema is a classic. Cook 250 g of mince in the onion masala until dry before adding the fried karelay.

Serve it with, and similar recipes

All sabzi recipes

Read this recipe in Urdu: کریلے پیاز بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/karela-pyaz · Handi, DanixSoft