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.
Murungai keerai poriyal recipe
Recipe Cuisine: Indian | Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 20 mins | Cook time: 10 mins | Serves: 3
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
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
Mustard – 3/4 tsp
Urad dal – 2 tsp
Red chilli (dry) – 2 or 3
Method
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
My favorite one ! u can easily remove the stalk if u refrigerate it for 2 days it comes automatically 🙂
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.
healthy stir fry my fav keerai
Even am lazy to clean the leaves so hardly get it ..poriyal looks yum with nice pic
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 🙂
My favorite poriyal…
unbelievably healthy!!! so delicious and very interesting taste!!!
Sowmya
this is my fav one..we love it with hot rice mixed with ghee
i hardly make drumsticks leaves. never ever liked it. my mom makes in a similar way.
Healthy Poriyal…good one
even though i cry eating it..my mom will keep this healty one for my lunch…but here in hyd,we dont get this..craving for it
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..
Looks delish..nice pic
My favourite dish… to avoid coconut, I used to add boiled karamani sundal, it goes well with Murungai keerai 🙂
Yummy…You can also use the leaves in sambar. The araithu vitta sambar type..
I made the murungakeerai at home today & see the same on ur post.
Adding corsely ground peanuts instead of coconut is another tasty version of this poriyal.
Seriously am missing much those super fresh drumsticks leaves, love this poriyal simply with rice.
i love the taste of drumstick leaves very much..and as aparna said even i refrigerate it for a day,it ill come out very easily..nice poriyal raks
To make this even more interesting add fried whole or powdered peanuts to the end its tastes heavenly
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.
Try adding corasely grounded roasted peanut. Tastes heaven, the bitterness is also unseen.
Good one
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.
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.
cooking greens covered ll make release volatile acids!which is apparently not good for us!ur grandma has nailed it!!its always good to follow elders na!
Am a beginner can u pls tell me what is the stalks u r referring to
Stalks mean the stem attached to the leaf.
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
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
Made this recipe a few times now from your website (got my dad and 4 yr old son to help me with the leaves 😛 ) and turned out great each time. Thank you!
Tried, didnt work for me.
It is not cooked covered to ensure that some of the unhealthy stuffs in the green will evaporate while cooking. I read this in some book.
Thank you for this simple recipe. Will give your recipe a go with a little twist.
Nice recipe will try
You should never cover the greens and cook otherwise it will loose it's green colour…that is why I think your grandma told you not to cover
Nice recipe will try
You should never cover the greens and cook otherwise it will loose it's green colour…that is why I think your grandma told you not to cover
Nice recipe will try
You should never cover the greens and cook otherwise it will loose it's green colour…that is why I think your grandma told you not to cover