Drumstick Leaves (Murungai Keerai) Dal

I remember seeing drumstick leaves in Friday santae (market) held at Marathahalli in Bangalore…..but never bought them then. As that time they were many vegetables and fruits which I had never seen nor tasted and these drumstick leaves fall under that category. After moving to Chennai, drumstick leaves are much common sight and we can spot them in almost all road side vegetable shops. Very recently I had tasted these leaves at a restaurant in mini thali and I got acquired taste to these leaves.

Drumstick leaves are slightly bitter in taste and oval in shape. These leaves are very much used in combo with toor dal or yellow mung dal and sometimes they are used in adai and made into poriyal too. Morianga/Drumstick leaves are rich in nutrients and carry many health benefits. Apart from its leaves… flowers, seeds, pods and roots are edible and may be because of that…… Moringa or Mungakaya or Drumstick tree got its name as ‘The Miracle Tree’.

We get huge bunch of drumstick leaves for Rs.10/- in any local vegetable shop in Chennai. Upon googling I came across many interesting recipes using drumstick leaves…but for now I have settled with two much popular recipes….one is drumstick leaves dal and other is drumstick leaves with mung dal poriyal….Today I am going to share with you a simple dal recipe using drumstick leaves. For my Andhra taste buds…a simple meal is always comprise of dal, chawal, achar and papad…so here is one of the much famous Murungai  Keerai dal from the ‘Land of Temples’…..

Drumstick Leaves (Murungai  Keerai) Dal

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 ½ cup fresh Drumstick leaves/Murungai  Keerai/Munagaku
• 1 cup Toor dal
• 1 Onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 Green chilli, deseeded and cut into half
• 1 Tomato, deseeded and chopped
• 1 small lemon sized Tamarind, washed
• ½ tbsp. Sambar Powder
• 1 tbsp. Red chilli powder
• ¼ tbsp. Turmeric powder
• Salt

TEMPERING:

• 1 tbsp. Jeera/Cumin seeds
• ½ tbsp. Mustard seeds
• 1 dry Red chilli
• 3-4 cloves Garlic
• 9-10 fresh Curry leaves
• 2 tbsp. Oil

PREPARATION:

• Pressure cook toor dal along with sliced onion slices, tomato pieces, green chilli, tamarind, red chilli powder, sambar powder, turmeric powder and 4 cups of water until soft. Once the pressure settles, remove the lid and add mash the dal by adding salt.
• Add 1 tbsp. of oil to skillet and fry drumstick leaves on low flame until they start to wilt. Stir in above cooked and mashed dal. Check for salt and bring this to boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off the flame.
• In the meantime, add oil in another pan and drop in the ingredients listed under tempering one by one. When the curry leaves start to change color turn off the flame and pour the tempering over the dal. Cover and leave it for 5-10 minutes.
• Serve with hot rice and your choice of fry, pickle and some papad.
• I served this drumstick leaves dal with steamed rice, papad, mango pickle and drumstick leaves poriyal (Recipe coming next).
• Last but not least add your ‘love’ to make the dish ‘YUMMY’.