Pages

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Drumstick leaves(Muringa ila) dal

Drumstick leaves are super healthy and packed with a variety of nutrients. I have given these leaves the royal ignore when I had them rampantly growing in my backyard. Now that i can't just walk out of the house and pluck them off the tree, I seem to have become suddenly aware of how good they are for health and end up buying them whenever I see them in the market.To make dal with drumstick leaves, you need:

Drumstick leaves (DUH!!!) - 1 cup, washed
Channa dal - 1/2 cup
Whole green gram dal - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 chopped
Garlic - 3 or 4 pods, chopped
Green chilli - 2, minced
Ginger - a small piece, chopped
Carrot - 1, grated
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 3/4 tsp
Salt

Cook all the ingredients along with sufficient water in a pressure cooker until 4-5 whistles. Adjust consistency to your liking by either adding more water once cooked or if you feel there is too much water, boil it for a few minutes until it reaches the desired consistency.
Serve hot with rotis.

Notes:
  • This is a highly adaptable recipe. You can add any veggie of your choice to make it more flavourful and healthy. You can also try out different combinations of dal. You can use all green gram dal or a combo of masoor+channa+green gram.....
  • It tastes even better the next day once the flavours have had some time to blend in.
This is my entry to Mansi's Healthy Cooking event and to Sangeeth's Eat Healthy Protein Rich event.

What makes this recipe healthy???
  1. Drumstick Leaves - A rich repository of nutrients including iron, Vitamin A, calcium, phosphorous, and antioxidants.
  2. 0 tsp oil/fat
  3. Protein rich lentils.

16 comments:

ushaprashanth said...

Hi Jayashree!!!!
I would like to give your blog an award "Yummy Blog award" .. for details please see
http://samaikalamvanga.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-first-award.html

Congratulations!

Shreya said...

Hi Jayashree, lovely muringa ila dal combo. These leaves are very healthy, and I have always have the thoran only (of which I have posted the recipe on my blog). Will surely try this . Thanks for the recipe.

sra said...

I've had these leaves fried with peanuts, lovely! We don't use them at home, just not used to them.

mitr_bayarea said...

Jayashree-

murunga illa/ I've only done murunga keerai with whatever we get here in US, interesting twist to adding channa dal to this. Will try out sometime.

Congrats on the award.

Vaishali said...

What a delicious recipe. I've heard great things about drumstick leaves and although I love the pods, I've never had a chance to taste the leaves. I don't even know where I can find them where I live. Maybe someday...

Uma said...

delicious dal Jaya! So colorful and healthy too.

Unknown said...

I love muringa ila in any form.Loved your dal..I don't get it here though..

Srivalli said...

wow that looks great jay

EC said...

Nice and healthy dish

Deepthi Shankar said...

i havent had this before .. have never seen drumstick leaves .. will find out .. BTW your prev post was an amazing read .. I just started pondering abt it

Cynthia said...

Just the word drumstick makes me feel homesick. Sigh.

Unknown said...

thats a nice healthy recipe with drumstick leaves..we get them here, but i never buy..now if I buy i know what to do with them..

Mansi said...

hi jayshree, you can email me your entry

Mansi said...

thanks for the entry Jayshree! looks great:)

Sangeeth said...

luv drumstick....but its leaves...my mom used to do a diff recipe with this...will share soon...luved ur version too...thanks for the entry.

Rajitha said...

we make molagootal with it..amma just tells the maid to go to someone's house and ask if she could pluck the leaves...never bought it from the market too