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Murungai keerai poriyal recipe (Drumstick leaves stir fry)

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murungai-keerai-poriyal-drumstick leaves poriyal
    Murungai keerai / drumstick leaves poriyal makes its appearance very rarely in my kitchen. That’s coz I rarely buy drumstick leaves. I become lazy when it comes to separate the leaves from the stalk. But recently I am buying very often to consume it for its health benefits. My mom makes very often. Most of the time she makes kootu. And every time she makes kootu, being a picky eater, I used to refuse eating it. She says a song for it. It starts like this “murunga keerai kootu, moonu dhadam potu….”  sorry only that much I remember now🤔. And makes me eat once. When I was asking Vj how he likes it, he said he likes it as poriyal. At my mom’s house, we call it as Murunga keerai thuvattal. So these days I started to buy this keerai often, to make poriyal with it for Vj, but always end up adding in adai. This time too, added a part of it first in adai and made murungai keerai adai and the rest I made it as poriyal. So thought of posting it too.

2-murungai-keerai-poriyal

Murungai keerai poriyal recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 20 mins    |  Cook time: 10 mins    |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Drumstick leaves – 2 cups tightly packed

Onion – 1

Sugar – 1/4 tsp

Coconut, grated – 1/4 cup

Salt – As needed

To temper

Oil – 2 tsp

Mustard – 3/4 tsp

Urad dal – 2 tsp

Red chilli (dry) – 2 or 3

Method

  1. Carefully separate the leaves from stalks. Its always better to leave a tiny bit of stalk in the leaves, but take care no long sticks as well. Wash and drain, keep aside. Heat oil in kadai, temper with the items given under “to temper” table. Add finely chopped onion and fry till transparent.

    2. 1-murunga-keerai-poriyal

  2. Add the drained leaves, salt and sugar. Keep stiring to mix the salt for a minute, it will leave water, which helps in cooking the greens. Cook in low flame for 5 minutes. The volume will reduce as it is cooking.

    3. 2-murungai-keerai-poriyal

  3. You can cook covered, but my grandma says do not cook any green covered with lid, it should be cooked open. I dont know the reason, but believe there is some good reason for it. So as it cooks, the water that oozed out from the greens will evaporate apparently help the greens get cooked. Once done, cook in high flame to evaporate excess water. Add grated coconut at last and give a fry for a minute.

    4. 3-murungai-keerai-recipe

Notes

    • You can skip onion and add finely chopped garlic.
    • We usually do not add curry leaves in greens stir fry or any dish with greens.
    •  Adding sugar helps retaining the green colour.
    • If too much of stalks left in the green, its not good for your tummy.
    • The poriyal by itself has a very very mild bitterness sometimes, depending upon the variety.

You can serve this as accompaniment for rice, sambar or any kuzhambu. You can mix it with steamed rice and ghee and have it as such too.

drumstick-leaves-stir fry

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. My mom always pick it fresh from our garden and add in Adai always. Very rarely she makes poriyal out of this. This looks very tempting and a plate full of goodness. Best for lactating mothers.

    Reply

  10. Lolz, the same my MIL told when she visited me last year, but it works only for Indian drumstick leaves, I buy Malaysian, it is strong, gets wilted but never comes off 🙂

    Reply

  24. healthy stir fry…perfect pair for rasam sadham..but I don't get this in my place..but my mom used to add this keerai in last stages of ghee making…keerai and ghee are then mixed with rice, tastes fabulous..

    Reply

  40. Have not had it since I moved to the U.S. Amma used to make it all the time. The backyard tree was awesome for this purpose. Looks so comforting and memorable for me.

    Reply

  46. I am nursing my 2months old baby, my mom makes this often for my 1st daughter. Now I am in my inlaws house, missing this badly. Today decided to make, just notice yiur receipe. Thank u for this healthy dish.

    Reply

  48. Thank you for posting this. My mom used to make this deliciously. My aunt gave this greens to me today from her garden. Going to make it tomorrow for lunch. Looks yummy.
    PS: we should not close with lid while cooking greens as it emits amino acids while being cooked. Greens should not be consumed with its amino acids. So allow it to leave the greens along with the vapour so the healthy greens alone remain for consumption.

    Reply

  56. To Raks anand..To answer your woes on how to separate the leaves from the stalk..Get the murungai leaves one day earlier and leave it on a bowl or newspaper..The next day you have to just shake the stalks ..and leaves will drop perfectly..and can use your finger to strip the leaves ( gently) it is the easiest way to separate them

    Reply

  58. To the author of Raks Kitchen…there is the tip on how to separate the leaves and stalk.
    Get murungai leafs a day earlier and leave it in container or on paper..the next day take the stalk and just shake it loose or use your fingers to strip …leafs will fall and you find any stalk ..Try it

    Reply

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