2 (Quick) Murungai Keerai Poriyal / Drumstick Leaves Stir-Fry using Toor Dal & Ground Nut
Ever wondered how to make tasty and delicious Murungai Keerai Poriyal?
Some of us have little disliking to the taste of drumstick leaves stir fry, but it can’t be avoided because of it’s rich nutritious content!
Today, I will show you how to prepare this moringa leaves stir fry in 2 methods.
Also, read on to know how to make this keerai poriyal tasty with some interesting additions and variants.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents:
- What is Murungai Keerai Poriyal or Drumstick Leaves Stir-Fry?
- Drumstick Leaves Names in Indian Languages
- Benefits of Murungai Keerai
- Meal Combinations with Murungai Keerai Poriyal
- Video Recipe: How to Make Drumstick Stir Fry in 2 ways at Home
- Detailed Step-by-Step Procedure to Prepare Murungai Keerai Poriyal
- Recipe Card: How to Make Murungai Keerai Poriyal/Drumstick Leaves Stir Fry
What is Murungai Keerai Poriyal/Drumstick Leaves Stir-Fry?
Murungai Keerai Poriyal or Drumstick Leaves Stir Fry is a South Indian side dish recipe prepared using Murungai keerai/Drumstick tree leaves (a Spinach Variety) and ingredients like mustard, cumin seeds, red chilly, finely chopped onions, etc.
It is a very Healthy recipe due to the iron content present in it.
Drumstick Leaves Names In Indian Languages
- Murungai Keerai in English – Drumstick Leaves/Moringa Leaves
- Murungai Keerai in Tamil – Murungai Keerai
- Murungai Keerai in Kannada – Nugge Soppu
- Murungai Keerai in Hindi – Palak Sahjan
- Murungai Keerai in Malayalam – Muringayila
- Murungai Keerai in Telugu – Munagaku
Benefits of Drumstick Leaves
- Highly rich in Iron.
- Very nutritious.
- Helps increases blood in the body during pregnancy.
- Improves eyesight.
- Rich in Vitamin A,C,K, manganese and proteins.
- High medicinal properties.
- Reduces Blood Pressure and sugar level in diabetics.
New to Indian Cooking?
If you are a beginner or someone who is not sure on how to get started in Indian Cooking, please click on the below links for STEP By STEP GUIDE.
1. Essential Indian Cooking Tools – A Complete Guide for setting up basic Indian Equipment for cooking.
2. Essential Indian Spices – A Comprehensive Guide explaining the basics of Indian Spices which are Important for cooking Indian Foods.
3. How to Cook Rice Perfectly – Learn to Cook Indian Rice using 2 methods – Pot and Pressure Cooker
4. 6 Essential Indian Flours – Essential Guide to learn about most commonly used Indian Flours.
Meal Combinations with Sahjan Palak
- Rice & Sambar
- Rice & Poondu Kulambu
- Rice & Vendakkai Kara Kulambu
- Curd Rice
- Puliogare/Pulihora/Puliodharai
- Lemon Rice
- Rice & Kulambu Varieties (any choice)
Want to know how to prepare Crunchy Murungai Keerai Vadai (Drumstick Leaves Vada)? Click on the below link:
Murungai Keerai Vadai (Crispy and Healthy Vada!!!)
Murungai Keerai Egg Poriyal (Drumstick Leaves Egg Stir Fry)
Murungai keerai poriyal recipes can be prepared in different ways. Below are a few variations/varieties of recipes prepared using these leaves:
Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Toor Dal
The most common Murungai keerai poriyal is prepared using Toor Dal (also known as Split Pigeon Peas).
Murungai keerai leaves taste a little bitter and hence when you cook them with Toor Dal to prepare poriyal the bitterness gets eliminated.
Since we use dal in this recipe while cooking drumstick leaves, it is recommended you use a pressure cooker. Or else, you can cook dal alone in a pressure cooker and finally add it to the cooked spinach/moringa leaves and saute.
Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Coconut
Another common dish is murungai keerai poriyal with coconut (grated). Grated Coconut basically is a very common ingredient used to garnish any South Indian poriyal/side dish variety.
Coconut adds a slightly sweet taste to the dish. It’s up to you to decide whether to increase or decrease the coconut quantity to be added.
Those who have cholesterol it’s highly recommended you DO NOT add coconut to your dishes.
What is Murungai Keerai/Drumstick Leaves/Moringa Leaves?
Murungai Keerai as it is known in the Tamil Language is a type of Spinach Variety. It is highly nutritious as it is rich in Iron, Vitamins and Proteins.
Murungai keerai (or moringa leaves) are widely used for ayurvedic medicinal purposes in India.
The leaves of it are quite small, tender and have a blunt edge and tip. The leaves are just about the size of cardamom.
When compared to other spinach varieties, these moringa leaves are easy to separate from their stalk. It is similar to separating the curry leaves from its stalk.
I have always had an aversion towards murungai keerai. Just to make me eat it in some way, my mom would prepare it as a poriyal, kootu, vadai, or also sometimes, she adds it while preparing chapathi/roti.
I mostly prefer murungai keerai in vadai, chapati, roti or kolambu variety over poriyal. The reason being the slight bitter taste felt in poriyal. But my husband likes it in the form of poriyal though.
Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Egg
Murungai Keerai poriyal with egg is another interesting & healthy recipe. Most of them prepare this dish in order to make their kids eat spinach and eggs.
The procedure of making this dish is the same, except that at the end instead of adding grated coconut or groundnut powder, you need to add scrambled eggs and give it a toss.
This is again rich in iron and protein.
Drumstick Leaves without Onion
Moringa leaves, also known as nugge soppu in kannada, can be prepared without onions too. All you need to do is to skip adding the onions while preparing this dish.
By cooking nugge soppu without onions, will not make much change in the taste of the dish.
Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Groundnut
Murungai keerai or Sahjan in Hindi, is sometimes prepared using groundnut.
The groundnut is dry roasted, de-skinned and ground to a coarse powder and is finally added to the murungai keerai poriyal.
It is added as a garnish instead of grated coconut.
Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Pasi Paruppu
Murungai keerai stir fry can also be prepared using pasi paruppu (also known as moong dal in hindi and petite yellow lentils in English).
Moong dal is added instead of Toor dal and the rest of the procedure is the same.
Video Recipe: How to Make Drumstick Leaves Stir Fry in 2 ways at Home
Step-by-Step Procedure to Prepare Murungai Keerai Poriyal
Step 1: Cleaning the Drumstick Leaves
- Drumstick tree leaves or murungai keerai leaves are small and slender.
- They can be easily removed from the stalk similar to curry leaves.
- Remove/separate the leaves, wash it and drain out the water.
- DO NOT directly wash the leaves under the tap before separating from the stalk.
- Wash and keep aside.
Step 2: Sauteing
- In a pressure cooker – add oil, mustard, cumin seeds, red chilly, finely chopped onions and salt.
- Saute until onions turn golden brown.
- Cook in medium flame.
Step 3: Adding Toor Dal and Drumstick Leaves
- Wash/Rinse the toor dal 2-3 times with water, drain the water and finally add it to the sauteed onions.
- Now, add the washed/rinsed drumstick leaves/murungai keerai/nugge soppu/sahjan into the cooker.
- Combine well and cook in medium flame.
Step 4: Adding Spices & Pressure Cooking
- Add a pinch of turmeric powder. Combine well.
- Sprinkle or add 50-100ml water.
- Cover & cook for 1 whistle in medium flame or until the dal and spinach gets cooked well.
- Once pressure releases, open the lid and cook in medium flame only if any water is left out.
- Cook until water evaporates.
- Turn off the flame and keep aside.
Step 5:
(Method 1) Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Coconut
- Take one portion of the murungai keerai poriyal/nugge soppu palya.
- Add it to a kadai.
- Grate the coconut in a blender or hand grater.
- Add the grated coconut to the kadai along with murungai poriyal.
- Mix it up well.
- Turn off the flame.
- You may also add coconut after turning off the stove and just give it a good stir.
(Method 2) Murungai Keerai Poriyal with Groundnut
- In a kadai – add groundnuts/peanuts.
- Dry roast them until it turns slightly dark brown or black.
- Peel off the skin.
- Add it to a blender and grind it coarsely. Keep aside.
- Take another portion of the murungai keerai poriyal/nugge soppu palya.
- Add it to a kadai.
- Add the coarsely ground peanuts to the kadai along with murungai poriyal.
- Mix it up well.
- Turn off the flame.
- You may also add coconut after turning off the stove and just give it a good stir.
Recipe Card: How to Make Murungai Keerai Poriyal/Moringa Leaves Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 red chilly
- 1 onion - finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp toor dal(split yellow pigeon peas) - washed
- 1 cup murungai Keerai (Drumstick Leaves) - washed
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 50-100ml Water - sprinkle
- 2 tsp grated coconut - (for method 1)
- 2 tbsp groundnut/peanut - (for method 2)
Instructions
- In a pressure cooker - add oil, mustard, cumin, red chillies, onions and salt.
- Saute until onions turn golden brown.
- Add the washed toor dal and murungai keerai.
- Combine well.
- Add turmeric powder and sprinkle some water. Mix well.
- Cover and cook for 1 whistle on medium flame.
- Open and Cook until water evaporates.
- Turn off flame.
Method 1: Using Coconut
- Take one portion of cooked dal and murungai keerai Poriyal in a kadai.
- Add grated coconut and mix well.
- Murungai keerai poriyal with coconut is ready to be served.
Method 2: Using Groundnut
- Dry roast the groundnut in a kadai.
- Peel the skin and grind it coarsely.
- Take another portion of cooked dal and murungai keerai poriyal in a kadai.
- Add the groundnut powder and combine well.
- Serve hot.
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Coconut does not increase cholesterol it actually helps reduce bad cholesterol… it’s one of the oils that is equivalent to olive oil. It would be great if you could remove that. This recipe came out well though.. thanks
Sure and thanks for correcting.