How to Remove Bitterness From Bitter Leaf

Learn the best ways to eliminate bitterness of bitter leaf for easy cooking.

1. Par boiling.

Put it in a seperate pot and boil it for 2 minutes. This will allow the bitterness to give way while the required bitter leaf vegetable nutrient is still retained in the leave. Pour out the hot water and wash it 3 times with normal water before starting your normal cooking.

2. Put sugar.

It won't make your soup sugary once you put it at a proportionate amount. Only use sugar on bitter leaf soup when you want to remove its bitterness.

3. Squeeze with salt.

First remove the leaf from the Midrib then squeeze thoroughly with salt before adding cool or warm water. Rinse very well and sieve before putting in cooking pot.

4. Potassium par boiling

Par boil with a pinch of potassium for 2 mins, before adding to a stew or soup.

5. Red oil and salt.

Red oil has the purging property of nutralizing poisons and chemicals. So many people use it with salt in removing bitterness from bitter leaf. Just add small quantity in water, then salt and squeeze the leaf inside the mixture til you get the desired taste.

If all don't work,

Although atleast one of the procedures above will help remove the bitterness from bitter leaf before cooking, if all don't seem to work for you, dump the old ones and go for a new one. Old bitter leaf used to be more bitter and less easy to deal with than the new one.

If already in the soup you should add more major ingredients like meat and fish etc. On a normal day you're not supposed to wash away all its bitterness because that's the nutrient it contains.