A traditional south Indian side-dish with a lot of nutritional values. I learnt those values only when my colleague in SFO mentioned that they buy moringa leaves powder capsules for $15! Yes, you heard me right.
That was the first time I heard buying moringa leaves. In southern parts of India, we can see this on the roadside with the leaves falling off on the pavement. We have this in our home and my mom makes a lot of recipes with it, but in all my early days, for some reason I gave these leaves a miss. I’ve learnt them from my mom a few years back and will share all of them here in the coming days.
Ingredients
2 cups murungaikeerai/moringa leaves
1/4 cup grated coconut
1/4 coarsely ground roasted peanuts
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon white gram/ulundhu
1 red chilli
1 tablespoon coconut oil
4 shallots
curry leaves
salt to taste
Preparation
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add white gram, curry leaves, shallots and red chilli broken into two pieces; stir them for a minute. I’m using coconut oil for the flavor, you can use any oil of your choice.
2. Add the washed leaves into the same pan with a pinch of salt and 1 or 2 tablespoons of water. Put on the lid and cook them in a low flame for 8-10 mins.
3. The color of the leaves will turn deep green if they’re done. Add the ground peanuts and grated coconut and combine.
4. Turn off the heat and leave the lid closed for a few minutes.
It’s ready to serve!
Loavesandfishez 