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    Home » Recipes » Accompaniments

    Murungai keerai poriyal recipe (Drumstick leaves stir fry)

    Updated on June 9, 2022 by Raks Anand 38 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    Murungai keerai / drumstick leaves poriyal makes its appearance very rarely in my kitchen.

    murungai keerai poriyal
    murunga keerai poriyal

    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 today.

    murungai keerai poriyal

    Instructions

    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.
    2. Wash and drain, keep aside. Heat oil in kadai, temper with the items given under “to temper” table.
    3. Add finely chopped onion and fry till transparent.
    temper, saute

    4. 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.

    add keerai

    6. You can cook covered, but my grandma says do not cook any green covered with lid, it should be cooked open.

    I don't 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.

    grated coconut

    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.

    murungai keerai poriyal
    murungai keerai poriyal

    Recipe card

    murungai keerai poriyal
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    5 from 1 vote

    Murungai keerai poriyal recipe

    Murungai keerai / drumstick leaves poriyal makes its appearance very rarely in my kitchen. That’s coz I rarely buy drumstick leaves.
    Course Side Dish
    Cuisine Indian, South Indian
    Prep Time 20 minutes minutes
    Cook Time 20 minutes minutes
    Servings 3 people
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    • 2 cups Drumstick leaves
    • 1 Onion optional
    • ¼ teaspoon Sugar
    • ¼ cup Coconut grated
    • Salt

    To temper

    • 2 teaspoon Oil
    • ½ teaspoon Mustard
    • 2 teaspoon Urad dal
    • 2 Red chilli dry
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • 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 don't 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.
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. AparnaRajeshkumar

      July 10, 2013 at 11:13 am

      My favorite one ! u can easily remove the stalk if u refrigerate it for 2 days it comes automatically 🙂

      Reply
    2. JEYASHRI SURESH

      July 10, 2013 at 11:51 am

      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
    3. Veena Theagarajan

      July 10, 2013 at 11:55 am

      healthy stir fry my fav keerai

      Reply
    4. Priti S

      July 10, 2013 at 11:57 am

      Even am lazy to clean the leaves so hardly get it ..poriyal looks yum with nice pic

      Reply
    5. Raks anand

      July 10, 2013 at 12:04 pm

      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
    6. Akila

      July 10, 2013 at 12:13 pm

      My favorite poriyal...

      Reply
    7. Nivedhanams Sowmya

      July 10, 2013 at 12:23 pm

      unbelievably healthy!!! so delicious and very interesting taste!!!
      Sowmya

      Reply
    8. Aarthi

      July 10, 2013 at 1:19 pm

      this is my fav one..we love it with hot rice mixed with ghee

      Reply
    9. dassana

      July 10, 2013 at 2:07 pm

      i hardly make drumsticks leaves. never ever liked it. my mom makes in a similar way.

      Reply
    10. SHARMILEE J

      July 10, 2013 at 2:08 pm

      Healthy Poriyal...good one

      Reply
    11. Shama Nagarajan

      July 10, 2013 at 2:15 pm

      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

      Reply
    12. Gayathri Ramanan

      July 10, 2013 at 3:07 pm

      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
    13. divya

      July 10, 2013 at 4:12 pm

      Looks delish..nice pic

      Reply
    14. Seetha Senthil

      July 10, 2013 at 10:34 pm

      My favourite dish... to avoid coconut, I used to add boiled karamani sundal, it goes well with Murungai keerai 🙂

      Reply
    15. Shreem

      July 11, 2013 at 5:52 am

      Yummy...You can also use the leaves in sambar. The araithu vitta sambar type..

      Reply
    16. Hemavathy Vinoth

      July 11, 2013 at 6:10 am

      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.

      Reply
    17. Priya Suresh

      July 11, 2013 at 10:15 am

      Seriously am missing much those super fresh drumsticks leaves, love this poriyal simply with rice.

      Reply
    18. prathibha Garre

      July 11, 2013 at 12:18 pm

      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

      Reply
    19. Smiladaniel Daniel

      July 12, 2013 at 10:07 am

      To make this even more interesting add fried whole or powdered peanuts to the end its tastes heavenly

      Reply
    20. Srimathi Mani

      July 12, 2013 at 3:19 pm

      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
    21. Ja's

      October 17, 2013 at 4:26 pm

      Try adding corasely grounded roasted peanut. Tastes heaven, the bitterness is also unseen.

      Reply
    22. ramya ramalingam

      December 13, 2013 at 1:37 pm

      Good one

      Reply
    23. Sangc

      January 31, 2014 at 12:53 pm

      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
    24. Monique

      July 24, 2014 at 12:23 am

      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
    25. dhanya vivek

      May 03, 2016 at 12:27 pm

      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!

      Reply
    26. Sathya Priya

      August 05, 2016 at 3:51 am

      Am a beginner can u pls tell me what is the stalks u r referring to

      Reply
    27. Raks anand

      August 05, 2016 at 3:54 am

      Stalks mean the stem attached to the leaf.

      Reply
    28. moorehunt rengasamy

      November 18, 2016 at 5:46 am

      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
    29. moorehunt rengasamy

      November 18, 2016 at 5:46 am

      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
    30. Sajjan Sarkar

      July 30, 2017 at 2:58 pm

      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!

      Reply
    31. Sajjan Sarkar

      August 12, 2017 at 1:17 am

      Tried, didnt work for me.

      Reply
    32. Sangamithra

      October 23, 2017 at 9:32 am

      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.

      Reply
    33. Unknown

      March 13, 2018 at 5:19 pm

      Thank you for this simple recipe. Will give your recipe a go with a little twist.

      Reply
    34. Sheela Sharma

      June 28, 2018 at 1:09 am

      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

      Reply
    35. Sheela Sharma

      June 28, 2018 at 1:10 am

      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

      Reply
    36. Sheela Sharma

      June 28, 2018 at 1:10 am

      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

      Reply
    37. shanx

      August 19, 2019 at 3:39 pm

      If adai can be made with it, I think one can try making paruppu usili with it. Ergo, one more option.

      Reply
      • Raks Anand

        August 19, 2019 at 7:36 pm

        Right, will have to try! (y) 🙂

        Reply

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    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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