Eggology Egg White Recipe of the Day: Bitter Melon with Egg Whites & Black Beans

Got an extra bitter melon lying around the kitchen? Nope, me neither. Do you even know what they look like? Well, I've included a picture of them for your convenience, because after you read this very informative post, I know all of you will be running out to the store to pick up your bitter melon for dinner tonight.

Eggology is adding more recipes to an already robust recipe database! So I thought this would be a great opportunity to showcase some of the latest creative recipes that always feature Eggology egg whites. Browsing through them, I found a recipe called "Bitter Melon with Eggology Egg Whites & Black Beans". Hmmm, I thought. Aren't bitter melons traditionally used in Asian food? And aren't Black Beans traditionally used in Spanish food? And aren't egg whites traditionally not used with either of those two ingredients?! Well, I read on and discovered that we aren't using black beans, but fermented soybeans (also known as black beans) which is used in Asian cooking. Still, I asked myself, who would voluntarily eat a food that is called "bitter". If a food has to be named bitter, than it must be, well, really bitter!

So I did some research - thank you to wikipedia! And found out the medicinal values of bitter melon seem to certainly outweigh whatever bitterness they may have! For example, this food stimulates digestion, has an anti-malarial activity (though not proven in labs, the Asian people have used it in prevention and treatment of malaria), shows promise in improving cell function in people with cancer and could help people with HIV, and to top it off, has four bio active proteins that may help or prevent type II diabetes.

Now are you getting ready to run out to your local health food store and pick up a few bitter melons for dinner? Before you go, don't forget to print out this recipe! This is a sweet recipe for something so bitter! Enjoy!

The Best Bitter Melon w/ Egg Whites & Black Beans

Servings: One main course or a side dish for two.

WHAT YOU NEED:
1 large bitter melon
2 teaspoons black beans (fermented soy beans)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 cup Eggology egg whites
1 teaspoon soy sauce, low sodium
2 tablespoons cooking oil
Dash of pepper
Dash of chili sauce (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Chop off both ends of the bitter melon and slit it lengthwise. With a spoon gently remove the seeds and the pit from the vegetable and discard. Cut into pieces about a quarter inch thick. To remove some of the bitterness, add the pieces to boiling water and blanch them for 2 minutes then quickly put them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. This step is optional but if you never tried bitter melon before you may want to do this.

Add the black beans, garlic and ginger to a bowl. With the bottom of a fork mash them together until it forms a paste.

In a separate bowl, whisk in the soy sauce and chili sauce (if using) into the egg whites.

Heat the oil in a skillet (use a nonstick skillet if preferred). Heat the oil to very hot. Add the black bean mixture and stir around for 30 seconds or so. Add the bitter melon to the skillet (after it was removed from the ice water and dried off) and mix well with the black beans mixture.

Grind some fresh pepper and set the heat to low and cover for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes is up remove the bitter melon from the skillet.

Add more oil to the skillet (if necessary) and scramble the Eggology egg whites. After the eggs whites are done add the bitter melon back to the skillet and mix it well with eggs whites. Remove and serve.

---------------------------------

Eggology is adding to their recipes list and would love to add your favorite recipe that incorporates Eggology egg whites! Submit recipes here.