Hello Foodies!
Here’s another great summer harvest: Bitter melon vines/leaves. YES! Bitter melon leaves are edible and taste great stir fried. If you are lucky, you can find bitter melon leaves/vines sold at your local Asian grocery store or farmers market. I was lucky enough to have my relatives plant bitter melon and they were able to give us 3 bundles of the soft vines. If you know of someone planting bitter melon, ask them for the outer vines. 🙂 It’s slightly bitter but not as bitter as the actual melon. If you are accustom to bitter melon then this dish is just for you. But for those who doesn’t like bitter melon, give this one a try and see if it changes your taste buds in some ways 🙂 Today, I’ll show you how to take care of the outer softer bitter melon vines and how we like to cook it. It’s quite simple and very delicious during this time of year. We’ll be cooking it with pork and seasoning it pretty simple. Let me know if you’ve ever eaten bitter melon leaves before and how you like to cook it. A very nostalgic dish with my grandma in Thailand 😉
Main Ingredients
Bitter melon vines/leaves
Picking out the leaves for stir fry
Sliced pork butt, ginger, garlic, mushroom seasoning, salt, and chili pepper to stir fry in with the leaves 
Cook the pork until golden crispy or just to your liking 
Adding in the leaves & seasonings
And serve! It goes great with fresh steamed rice
YUM! 
Enjoy!
-CHawjCreations
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork butt or belly (sliced) Or your choice of meat
- 1/2 tsp salt (to season the pork)
- 2 lbs bitter melon vines untrimmed (935g untrimmed)
- 1 ½ tsp mushroom seasoning
- 1 tsp salt (to season the whole dish)
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 inch ginger (~1 tbsp chopped)
- 3 chili peppers (sliced)
Instructions
1) Trimming the bitter melon vines
Go through all the vines and pick all the leaves. Place the leaves in a bowl. Any rough stems, feel free to pick it out and discard them.
Once the leaves are picked. Wash it a few time to get rid of any unwanted grit.
2) Cut the meat into bite size pieces. Chop the garlic, ginger, and chili pepper. Set aside.
3) Cooking
In a pan, add in about 1 tbsp of oil. If you're using pork belly you may not need oil. Add in 1/2 tsp of the salt and cook until golden crispy or just to your liking. If there's too much oil, feel free to drain it. Then add in the garlic and ginger. Sweat for a good 30 secs or so. Then add in the bitter melon leaves. Add in the mushroom seasoning, 1 tsp salt, and sliced chili peppers. Saute until the leaves are just about wilted and the stems are cooked. Turn off heat, taste for seasoning and serve with rice.
Notes
Chicken is also good in this dish. Feel free to choose your own protein. We like crispy pork in this dish the most. Other seasonings you can try includes oyster sauce, golden mountain seasoning sauce, soy sauce etc. This dish is also great as it w/out meat.
1 comment
Wau that is delicious m! I meet a Chinese lady who plant that herself and share some leaves with the vine for tea!. I suffer diabetes, and high colesterol and also I am suffering of low res cells anemic!. She told me this is very good so I wanted to learn how to use it for cooking and I found you!. I will try this!. Thank you!!