Drumstick leaves Rice | Murungai Keerai Sadam | Drumstick leaves Recipes

Drumstick leaves rice recipe with step by step photos.Drumstick leaves has very good amount of Iron and it is a powerhouse of nutritional values and hence it is advised to include it often in our diet. But it is a very tedious process to remove the leaves from the stems otherwise these leaves have a peculiar taste compared to other greens.It was difficult for me to get these greens regularly when I was in Mumbai but I am enjoying these greens in Singapore. So, when ever I make a trip to little India I always load my bags with all the various greens like drumstick leaves, gongura leaves, palak, methi etc.

Though it is tedious to pluck the drumstick leaves but it is worth the effort because of the nutrients provided by these greens to us.

My mom prepares drumstick leaves curry, stir fry, rasam, drumstick leaves podi and add it to the dosa batter and adai batter to prepare dosas.Most of the times I end up making dosa or curry with them but when I get it in large quantities I prepare drumstick leaves rice variety or podi so that I can eat it on daily basis for long time.I prepare this rice in a similar way as I prepare curry leaves rice so one can adapt the same recipe to prepare curry leaves rice by replacing the drumstick leaves with the curry leaves in the recipe.

Check out other rice varieties using greens in my blog:

• Gongura Pulihora | Gongura Rice | Sorrel Greens Rice
• Methi-Peas Bath
• Sabsige Soppu(Dill leaves) Chitranna
• Mint Pulav /Pudina Rice
• Palak(Spinach) Rice
• Methi Pulao | Fenugreek Leaves Pilaf

Here is how to prepare drumstick leaves rice recipe with step by step photos:

Drumstick leaves Rice Recipe | Munagaku Rice:

Serves 2 | Author: Prathibha

Prep time: 15 mins | Cooking time: 30 mins | Total time: 45 mins

Cuisine: South Indian | Category: Main course - Rice variety

Ingredients:

1 cup Sonamasuri/ Raw Ponni(or equivalent)

2-2.25 cups Drumstick leaves

5-6 Cashewnuts,broken

1 tbsp Chana dal

2 tsp Urad dal

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

2 tbsp Oil,preferably Sesame Oil

Salt,to taste

to roast and grind:

1 tbsp Chana dal

2 tsp Urad dal

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tsp Pepper corns

4 Red chilies
1.5 tsp Tamarind

2-3 tbsp Sesame seeds, optional

Method:

• Wash and soak rice for half an hour and cook it as you wish.I cook the rice in the rice cooker by adding 2.5 cups of water and it comes out nice and fluffy.Cool the rice.
• Dry roast chana dal and urad dal until they turn brown and then add cumin seeds, peppercorns and red chilies and fry further until they are fried and the red chilis starts getting black spots.Add sesame seeds and tamarind and fry for another minute.Cool them and add salt and grind it into a coarse powder.

• Remove the leaves from the stems of drumstick leaves and wash them nicely and drain off the excess water.
• In the same pan add a tsp of oil and add the drumstick leaves and fry them until they turn slightly crispy, do not cover the pan else the leaves will turn soft.Continue frying until the leaves becomes slightly crisp,it will take roughly 8-10 mins.

• Cool them and add to the powdered spices and grind again to a powder.

• In a big kadai heat oil and crackle mustard seeds and add chana dal and urad dal and fry until they slightly red in color and then add broken cashewnuts and fry until they turn golden brown in color. Now add the ground drumstick leaves powder mixture to it and mix nicely and cook for a minute.At this stage you can store this mixture for 8-10 days in the refrigerator and use the required amount of mixture when required.
• Now add the cooled rice to the drumstick leaves mixture and mix it nicely.

Serve it with fryums.

Notes:

1. You can avoid sesame seeds if you want but it gives a nice balanced taste to the rice.
2. When I get hold of drumstick leaves I usually make this mixture in large quantity and store it in refrigerator.So all I need to do when I want a variety rice is to mix with cooked rice and it is ready.
3. You can prepare the curry leaves rice in the same process by replacing the drumstick leaves with the curry leaves.

Technorati Tags: drumstick leaves rice, drumstick leaves recipes, murungai keerai sadam, murungai keerai recipes, munagaku recipes, munugaku annam, south indian rice varieties, south indian

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Drumstick Leaves Curry Recipe | Murungai Keerai Poriyal | Munagaku Talimpu

Drumstick leaves have a very good content of iron and are very healthy and it is advisable to include them in our diet often. But it is a very tedious process to remove the leaves from the stems otherwise these leaves have a peculiar taste compared to other greens.We used to have a tree in my neighbor's house and hence procuring the fresh leaves and drumsticks was never an issue then, but finding good leaves is a challenge in Singapore.When ever I go to Little India I buy the vegetables and greens which are not available in the local markets and specially our Indian vegetables and greens. Sometimes I buy two bunches of each variety that it will last easily for upto a week with a marathon of greens based recipes in that week.

My mom usually makes the stir fry with it and also rasam with it apart from using it in Drumstick leaves Adai.You can even add the leaves to the dosa batter and prepare dosas which is very healthy and nutricious too. Try to include these iron rich greens in your diet often, it is worth the effort of cleaning those greens because of the goodness that these greens provide us.I am posting a version of Drumstick leaves Curry recipe which has small portion of toor dal and coconut but will post another simple version of Drumstick leaves stir fry later.

Drumstick Leaves Curry Recipe:

Serves 2-3 | Author: Prathibha

Prep time: 20 mins | Cooking time: 30 mins | Total time: 50 mins

Cuisine: South Indian | Category: Side dish - Curry for Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups Drumstick leaves,removed from stems

2 tbsp cooked Toor dal(pigeon peas)

1 small Onion, finely chopped

2 tsp thin Tamarind extract

1 tsp Red chili powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

Salt, to taste

1.5 tbsp Oil

to grind:

2 tbsp grated fresh/frozen Coconut

2 garlic cloves

2-3 peeled Shallots,optional

Method:

• Carefully remove the leaves from the stems,try to remove the smaller stems as much as possible. Wash the leaves and keep it aside.

• Pressure cook Toor dal until done, do not pressure cook for long that it will become mushy.I usually take from the dal I cook for sambar/dal on that day. Drain it and keep it aside.

• Grind grated coconut with garlicand shallots(if using) to a coarse powder and keep it ready.

• In a kadai heat oil and add finely chopped onions and fry until they turn pink.

• Add squeezed drumstick leaves,salt and turmeric powder and fry nicely until the leaves shrink and get cooked.

• Add tamarind extract,cooked toor dal,ground coconut, red chili powder and mix gently and fry until the curry becomes slightly dry and the moisture is well absorbed.

Serve it hot with Rice/Chapati.

Notes:

1. Try to remove the smaller stems as much as possible as they those stems might irritate you while eating and also is not good for your digestive system.
2. You can avoid toor dal and still make the same, it tastes nice too.
3. You can replace toor dal with moong dal in the recipe. In that case you just need to soak moong dal for half an hour.

Technorati Tags: drumstick leaves recipes, drumstick leaves poriyal, drumstick leaves stir fry, murungai keerai poriyal, munagaku recipes, munagaku vepudu, healthy greens, southindian recipes, poriyal recipes, stir fry recipes, side dish for rice

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Drumstick leaves Adai | Lentil Dosa with Drumstick Greens

When I saw drumstick leaves in a near by market recently I picked them as I rarely find them.I like the flavor of those greens especially when made in curries/palyas. Drumstick leaves are known to have more iron content in them and hence is very healthy to consume these greens once in a while.For a change I wanted to make something different apart from the usual palya/powder recipes with them.I usually add the tender ones in akki rotti but had not given a try in dosa/adai.
I have adapted this recipe from a cook book with some minor changes to suit our taste buds.The adai was tasty with a nice flavor added from those drumstick greens and over all a healthy dish.I like the combination of adai with jaggery and ghee and I know many of you think it is a weird combination,but for me the crispy and spicy adai tasted nice with jaggery and ghee.Who knows?? you might also fall in love with that combination,give a try and lemme know how you liked it.

Drumstick Leaves Adai:
(makes around 20-25 medium ones)

Ingredients:
1 cup Raw rice or Brown rice
1 cup Idli rice
3/4 cup Toor dal
2-3 cups Drumstick leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped Shallots/Onions
2 tbsp grated fresh Coconut
4-5 Byadige Red chillies(for color)
4-5 Red chillies
1 tsp Cumin seeds
2 fat pinches of Asafoetida
a sprig of Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method:

• Soak rice for 3-4 hrs and toor dal for 1 hr separately.
• In a blender/mixer,grind rice with toor dal,garted coconut,red chillies.cumin seeds,asafoetida,curry leaves and salt to a rawa consitency batter.Try adding less water for grinding,the consistency of the batter should be similar to the idli batter,but a bit coarse in texture.
• Leave the batter aside for an hour or two.However it is optional,you can make adai immediately with the batter.
• Clean and remove the drumstick leaves from the stems.Wash and drain them.
• Add finely chopped onions/shallots and drumstick leaves to the batter,the batter would be thicker than the spreading consistency.Do not chop the drumstick leaves.
  
• Make small and slightly thicker adai like how we spread dosa.Do not bother about the shapes of adai,as the batter is very thick it is bit difficult to get the perfect round shape but taste wise there would not be any difference.
  
• Pour lots of oil all over the adai and in the corners.It makes the adai more crispier.
  
• Cover and cook it over low-medium flame until golden brown on one side which takes 1-2 mins ideally.Turn to the other side and roast it well.Turn back to the roasted side and increase the flame for 1/2 minute.

Serve them hot with spicy Onion chutney,Jaggery and Ghee.

You can even serve with Avial/Onion-Tomato chutney/Ginger chutney or Coconut chutney.

Notes:

1. Use tender drumstick greens for this adai as they have lots of flavor in it.
2. Adai is ideally prepared thicker and also needs lots of oil to fry,so please add more oil for a crispier and tasty adai.
3. You can use 2 cups of raw rice instead of 1 cup raw rice and 1 cup of idli rice.But idli rice makes the adai more crispier.
4. You can even grind onion along with rice but I prefer adding them to the batter which gives a nice crunch.
5. Asafoetida adds a nice taste to adai,use the required quantity according to the quality of asafoetida.In generally the rock variety is more stronger than the powdered variety.

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