Murungai Keerai Kulambu  | Drumstick Leaves Kuzhambu

Drumstick leaves kuzhambu (kulambu) is a regular side dish for lunch in south Indian homes. Drumstick leaves is something we used to have at-least once a week. I try to have drumstick leaves as often as I can as it’s a power house of vitamins and minerals.

Moringa leaves in very healthy. It contains calcium, iron and potassium, in addition to moringa leaves contain several important vitamins: Vitamin A which helps maintain healthy vision, immunity, and fetal growth. Vitamin C which protects the body from pollutants and toxins. Vitamin E which acts as an antioxidant.  This curry is so comforting along with the rice. There are so many different varieties of spinach available and each one has their own unique qualities and nutritional values. Some greens have bitter taste too. Drumstick Leaves are one super nutritious green we have been gifted with. We use murungai keerai in poriyals or sometimes add in adai. Simple and most delicious recipe is Murungai Keerai Kuzhambu (Drumstick Leaves Kuzhambu)

Drumstick leaves preparation:

Drumstick leaves or moringa leaves needs a little prep work. Pull the leaves from the stem and set aside in a bowl. There might be small tiny stems still attached to the leaves and that is perfectly fine. Do not bother too much. You can make use of it, because it can cook easily.

Almost always, the moringa leaves have a lot of sand and fine dust in them. Wash and soak the leaves in water for 10 minutes. Gently remove the leaves from the top. While cleaning any greens, leaves, do not strain. The sand and the fine debris get settled in the bottom of the vessel after soaking. Gently remove the greens from the top making sure not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. We will be using about a 2-hand full of moringa leaves today for this recipe. Set aside. Murunga keerai has a unique taste which enhances the taste of the curry that they are cooked in. But they also have a slightly bitter taste. For this reason, we are generally cooked with lentils as in this recipe or with coconut. Here I use aromatic toor dal and rice coarse powder to get the perfect consistency and taste. Usually while grinding the roasted dal and rice we can’t use water, why because it can stick firmly together and to the bottom of, the mixie, it forms thick paste we can’t grind further. To avoid this, we have grind without water. Then adding to this coarse powder to curry, I didn’t add directly, because sometimes it gets form tight lumps while adding to the hot sambar. to avoid these difficulties, first we have to mix nicely with regular water then mix to hot sambar. usually in our home this will be the Saturday recipe, we can use it for morning with idli /dosa and for lunch with steam rice.

Watch moringa leaves curry / drumstick leaves sambar recipe video.

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Murungai Keerai Kulambu  | Drumstick Leaves Kuzhambu

Author: Sasi Cuisine: South Indian Courses: Lunch, Vegetarian Recipe Keys: V Vegetarian Meals

Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 15 min Total Time 30 mins

Servings: 4

Best Season: Suitable throughout the year

Ingredients

Servings

• 2 tablespoons Toor dal
• 1 tablespoon Por boiled rice
• 2 Hand full of drumstick leaves
• 15 Small onion (1/2 cup chopped)
• 8 cloves Garlic (1/4 cup chopped)
• 1 Tomato (1/2 cup chopped)
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon Turmeric powder
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 8 Dry red chillies
• 1 teaspoon Natural sea rock salt
• 6 cups Water
• 1.5 teaspoon Oil
• 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
• Few curry leaves

Instructions

1. To dry roast, heat the pan and add toor dal.

   

2. Add parboiled rice or raw rice. Dry roast in medium flame until both turn slight golden colour.

   

3. Add dry red chillies. Dry roast and then transfer in to a plate.

   

4. Add cumin seeds.

   

5. Heat oil in a pan / clay pot.

   

6. Add mustard seeds and allow to splutter.

   

7. Add dry red chillies and curry leaves.

   

8. Add chopped garlic cloves sauté for a minute.

   

9. Add chopped small onion.

   

10. Sauté in medium flame until get half cooked.

    

11. Add chopped tomato.

    

12. Cover and cook in medium flame until tomato get mushy.

    

13. In a mixie jar add all roasted ingredients and grind them to fine powder.

    

14. Add these ground powder in to little water and mix without any lumps.

    

15. Add this rice-dal water mixture in to pan.

    

16. Add water to reach required volume.

    

17. Add turmeric powder and mix well.

    

18. Cover and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes to become dal and rice cooked well.

    

19. If gravy become too thick add hot water to reach required consistency and mix well.

    

20. Add handful of cleaned moringa leaves.

    

21. Do not cover the pan, cook in medium flame.

    

22. Add natural sea rock salt.

    

23. Cook for 5-8 minutes to leaves get cooked nicely.

    

24. If you want smash the leaves with curry, use wooden masher (mathu).

    

25. Serve the delicious moringa leaves curry / murunga keerai Kuzhambu with hot steaming rice.

    

Note

• You can make this curry with moong dal also. It comes out nice. It’s a good variation.
• Ensure the murunga keerai are well cleaned and washed before adding it to the gravy.
• Drumstick leaves sambar pairs well with Idli | dosa and chapati too.

Keywords: moringa leaves gravy, murunga keerai kulambu, drumstick leaves curry