Bitter Melon Salad (Kinilaw na Ampalaya)
 |
| Bitter melon salad or kinilaw na ampalaya in Filipino |
Kinilaw is a raw salad something Filipinos can't get enough of. It is part of the Filipino food culture and it appeals to the Filipinos much the same way as the Ceviché does to Peruvians. They are almost the same thing at the fundamental level, it is made with raw seafood, a sour agent like lime or vinegar and some onions. In the Philippines, most people make it with vinegar and they use raw garlic and ginger. Oyster is a common ingredient for kinilaw around Manila as they were always readily available as vendors sold them everywhere they could. The fun part about kinilaw, however, is that you can make it using a variety of ingredients and it doesn't necessarily have to be raw seafood! You can make it with vegetables as well. Kinilaw can be made using bitter melons, eliminating seafood from the recipe altogether. Kinilaw is a salad and people have it generally with something fried perhaps to mitigate the oily taste. It is a very tasty dish as it combines an array of flavours which burst in your mouth. Using bitter melons, the salad becomes an extra healthy side dish.
As a child my mom was insistent on making me have bitter melons. She used it as a weapon against anaemia and so when our family doctor said I was iron deficient, I had to be confronted with it on a daily basis. She usually cooked it with onions and garlic with some egg and tomatoes but she'd also add it to almost any dish she thought could tolerate it, such as kare-kare (peanut butter vegetable stew). It was very bitter and my memories of it made me hesitant to eat it. As I grew older, I realized how healthy it is but it wasn't until I got very sick when I decided to give it a shot.
I developed this recipe at a time when I was plagued with urinary tract infection back in 2016 that was not going away despite changing antibiotics five times. I was in immense pain as a side effect of the antibiotics I had to do something to help my body get rid of the infection. I researched and found out that the good old bitter melon, garlic and onion are natural antibiotics with hundreds of compounds each that bacteria and can’t live with. Not only that, these three ingredients together are also strongly anti-viral, which can be helpful if you have the common cold. Now the challenge was, how to eat them all raw to get all the benefits?
Raw for me meant kinilaw! I remembered back in the Philippines in the 90s, a resort in Cavite served a bitter melon salad, in Filipino, kinilaw na ampalaya, which had the three main ingredients I wanted in – and they were raw! I faintly remembered what it was like and so I experimented several times until I finally found the right combination and of course I added in some new ingredients. I chose the ingredients based on their health properties, for instance red onions instead of white onions since the red pigment gives it an extra health-kick and makes our salad more colourful.
You can buy bitter melon in most Asian shops. They are usually long (about 30cms) with ‘wrinkles’ running lengthwise but have a relatively smooth texture. Try to pick out the ones with thicker stripes with a more yellow-greenish colour as it indicates that it is ripe and hence will be less bitter. There are many kinds of bitter melons and those smaller darker green ones with rougher texture and finer uneven stripes are usually more bitter and taste too strong in a salad. This is the type of bitter melon you can find in South Asia. Make sure you slice the bitter melon thinly to minimize the bitterness.
As a child my mom was insistent on making me have bitter melons. She used it as a weapon against anaemia and so when our family doctor said I was iron deficient, I had to be confronted with it on a daily basis. She usually cooked it with onions and garlic with some egg and tomatoes but she'd also add it to almost any dish she thought could tolerate it, such as kare-kare (peanut butter vegetable stew). It was very bitter and my memories of it made me hesitant to eat it. As I grew older, I realized how healthy it is but it wasn't until I got very sick when I decided to give it a shot.
I developed this recipe at a time when I was plagued with urinary tract infection back in 2016 that was not going away despite changing antibiotics five times. I was in immense pain as a side effect of the antibiotics I had to do something to help my body get rid of the infection. I researched and found out that the good old bitter melon, garlic and onion are natural antibiotics with hundreds of compounds each that bacteria and can’t live with. Not only that, these three ingredients together are also strongly anti-viral, which can be helpful if you have the common cold. Now the challenge was, how to eat them all raw to get all the benefits?
Raw for me meant kinilaw! I remembered back in the Philippines in the 90s, a resort in Cavite served a bitter melon salad, in Filipino, kinilaw na ampalaya, which had the three main ingredients I wanted in – and they were raw! I faintly remembered what it was like and so I experimented several times until I finally found the right combination and of course I added in some new ingredients. I chose the ingredients based on their health properties, for instance red onions instead of white onions since the red pigment gives it an extra health-kick and makes our salad more colourful.
 |
| The combination of bitter melons, garlic and onions helps your body fight off infections. |
 |
| Thin slices is key to making the bitter melon less bitter |
Ingredients (for 3-4 persons):
1 large bitter melon (at least 250g)
7 pcs cherry tomatoes
2 scallions
1 medium red onion
2 garlic cloves
1 red chili
1 cup white vinegar (I used coconut vinegar)
1-2 tablespoons Unrefined brown sugar (you can add more if
you prefer)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup water (for the dressing)
1.5 liter boiled water (for blanching)
a thumb of chopped ginger (optional)
a thumb of chopped ginger (optional)
Optional ingredients (to maximize absorption of fat-soluble nutrients
from the vegetables):
½ tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. flaxseeds
Directions:
1. Cut the bitter melon in half (lengthwise) and use a spoon
to scoop out the seeds.
2. Chop the bitter melon into 1-2mm thin slices then put it
in a bowl.
3. Pour freshly boiled water into the bowl to blanch the
chopped bitter melon for about 5-10 minutes. Drain the water and then rinse the
bitter gourd with cold water. Note: You can keep ½ cup of the drained water to
be used for the dressing instead of plain water.
4. Chop the onions, scallions and garlic. Crush the red
chili. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
5. Mix the salt, black pepper and sugar with the vinegar in a bowl.
6. Put all the ingredients in the bowl and give it a good
stir to coat all of the vegetables with the dressing.
7. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes for the best flavor.
Tip: Bitter melon salad is usually eaten as a side dish
normally with rice and some fish. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you can have
it with something fried or baked (fried tofu, tempeh or seitan).
The health bit
In his book, ‘How not to Die’, Dr. Michael Greger says that when you mix certain ingredients, their nutritional benefits multiply as their compounds synergize. So you can imagine the hundreds of compounds in bitter melon, garlic and onions (plus chili) mixing together to create a lethal environment for the disease-causing bacteria and viruses while giving your good bacteria a feast!
Bitter melon is perhaps one of the healthiest vegetables you can ever get your hands on, it is so healthy that in Southeast Asia, it is used to treat a variety of diseases including diabetes, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. It is also now being researched as a potential ingredient for treating HIV. Makes sense since it has strong anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. Garlic and onions come from the same family and are also anti-bacterial and anti-viral agents. Garlic, for instance, is known as the poor man's penicillin. That's how powerful garlic is!
Due to our excessive use of antibiotics, particularly on livestock, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one the rise. Ten years ago it took just one course of antibiotics to cure the same infection but today it takes multiple courses of different antibiotics and if you are lucky, it will go away. Why? Because the antibiotics also kill our good bacteria, which are our main line of defense against the bad bacteria! I'm not saying you should drop anti-biotics altogether. Just use it when necessary. Focus more on helping your good bacteria flourish to keep away all sorts of bad bugs away. One way of doing this is eating more vegetables and fruits, particularly prebiotics like garlic.
This salad helped me get rid of the infection for good. I literally had it every day as a side dish for two weeks while still taking the last course of antibiotics. Had I known that, I wouldn't have spent 6 months being sick. Now, I make this salad when we are feeling like catching a cold too and if we have it while we already have the cold (or flu), it cuts short our recovery time to 3-5 days instead of more than a week! I'd also recommend this salad for those who want to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol. The only drawback is that you'll have garlic breath that others can't stand, so best eat it at night. Enjoy!
The health bit
In his book, ‘How not to Die’, Dr. Michael Greger says that when you mix certain ingredients, their nutritional benefits multiply as their compounds synergize. So you can imagine the hundreds of compounds in bitter melon, garlic and onions (plus chili) mixing together to create a lethal environment for the disease-causing bacteria and viruses while giving your good bacteria a feast!
Bitter melon is perhaps one of the healthiest vegetables you can ever get your hands on, it is so healthy that in Southeast Asia, it is used to treat a variety of diseases including diabetes, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. It is also now being researched as a potential ingredient for treating HIV. Makes sense since it has strong anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. Garlic and onions come from the same family and are also anti-bacterial and anti-viral agents. Garlic, for instance, is known as the poor man's penicillin. That's how powerful garlic is!
Due to our excessive use of antibiotics, particularly on livestock, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one the rise. Ten years ago it took just one course of antibiotics to cure the same infection but today it takes multiple courses of different antibiotics and if you are lucky, it will go away. Why? Because the antibiotics also kill our good bacteria, which are our main line of defense against the bad bacteria! I'm not saying you should drop anti-biotics altogether. Just use it when necessary. Focus more on helping your good bacteria flourish to keep away all sorts of bad bugs away. One way of doing this is eating more vegetables and fruits, particularly prebiotics like garlic.
This salad helped me get rid of the infection for good. I literally had it every day as a side dish for two weeks while still taking the last course of antibiotics. Had I known that, I wouldn't have spent 6 months being sick. Now, I make this salad when we are feeling like catching a cold too and if we have it while we already have the cold (or flu), it cuts short our recovery time to 3-5 days instead of more than a week! I'd also recommend this salad for those who want to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol. The only drawback is that you'll have garlic breath that others can't stand, so best eat it at night. Enjoy!
Comments
Post a Comment