Muringayila Parippu Upperi ~ Drumstick (Moringa) Leaves with Lentils

Allah has His own ways. Each time, my blogging enthusiasm starts taking a downturn, He immediately surprises me with something that helps me take the U-turn, Alhamdulillah. 😀 I have had two things happening over the weekend, the smaller one is winning a gift voucher from Siri’s space and the big one was a mighty surprise: a feature on Manorama Online as one of the six Malayalee foodie accounts to follow on Instagram! It was a real surprise, since I feel I pushed behind a lot of well deserving foodie accounts, but it made me a stronger believer on His Will that may have caused me to be in that list in between all top shots! So rest assured, I am not stopping my blogging in the near future, InShaAllah… 😉

I did a little story on “Muringayila” or drumstick leaves when I had done this post. Drumsticks leaves are said to be rich in antioxidants and all good things required by your body. We don’t get to buy it here, however most of the villa compounds seem to have at least one big drumstick tree in their vicinity, especially in the northern emirates. This is one way I love to have muringayila. The lentils literally mask the greens and you wouldn’t even know that you are having them. The kids also enjoy this as a side to their meal of rice and a fish curry. Such simple meals guarantee a nice sense of satisfaction of eating homely and healthy food too. Umma used to make this when the amount of drumstick leaves at her disposal would not be enough to make a curry. I love it a lot that I reserve some leaves only to make this in small quantities along with rice. Off to this simple recipe…

Muringayila Parippu Upperi

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 2 cups drumstick leaves
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• FOR LENTILS:
• 1/2 cup masoor dal
• 3 green chillies slit
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• FOR GRINDING:
• 4 tbsp grated coconut
• 3 shallots
• 1 small pc ginger
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds

Instructions

• Wash the drumstick leaves well after removing from its stems. Set aside.
• Add the dal ingredients into a pressure cooker. Add water just to cover the dal and cook on high flame for one whistle. Switch off and allow to cool off completely.
• Grind the ingredients under "for grinding" and set aside.
• In a saucepan, heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds. Add the curry leaves and chillies and saute briefly.
• Add the leaves and turmeric powder and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the ground paste and the cooked dal into this, some water if required. Adjust salt.
• Simmer for five minutes for the flavors to mingle.
• Serve hot as side for rice and curry.