Moringa / Drumstick leaves chutney and Rice:

Nugge Soppu ,Moringa or Drumstick leaves are a power house of nutrients.  Back in 2016 I had tried a bunch of drumstick recipes to publish in Vijaya next kannada daily. This chutney recipe is from that trial and after that it is in my regular menu and I have made it many times, as well as tried to mix this same chutney into cooked rice after doing some seasoning and liked it a lot and It is an awesome way to feed small kids with added goodness of moringa.

I will first describe how to make chutney and at last I will add the procedure of rice as well.

This chutney stays good for up to one week and we can store this in a refrigerator and can be enjoyed as a side dish or make rice item and relish and can be packed as a carry meal in a tiffin box as well.

Procedure for  Chutney:

Moringa leaves – 4 cups (keep aside some young leaves for seasoning)

To be ground:

Roasted red chillies – 3

Black pepper – 3

Garlic – 10 cloves

Tamarind – ¼ tea spoon

Coriander leaves – 3 table spoons (chopped)

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Jaggery – ½ to 1 tea spoon

Salt

Seasoning;

Oil – 2 table spoons

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Curry leaves – 2 strings

Garlic – 10 cloves (chopped)

Onion – 1 (chopped)

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Method:

-Take moringa leaves (keep aside a little) and grind with all the items under “To be Ground” from Roasted red chillies to salt in the list by adding little water into coarse paste.

-Now take one kadai, do seasoning part. Heat oil, splutter mustard, add curry leaves, chopped garlic, onion ,turmeric and fry until onion and garlic becomes light brown.

-Add moringa leaves, which we have kept aside and fry till it wilts and add ground paste and fry for 3 to 5 minutes or until raw smell vanishes and mixture changes in colour.

-You can serve this as a side dish with hot rice and ghee. This chutney stays good under refrigeration and can be used as a moringa rice mix as well.

Now we will see the procedure for Moringa Rice:

It is simple. Take some oil and put one tea spoon of cumin, little curry leaves and one or two table spoons of ready chutney, little salt and mix nicely. Switch off the gas. Mix required amount of ready cooked rice in this mixture and mix nicely to devour aromatic moringa rice. If you have ready chutney around, it is a quick recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garlic Chutney Powder:

Basically, it is a very simple garlic flavoured dry coconut chutney. One of the most loved condiments of my kitchen. It works wonders when you sprinkle it on Dosa or onion uthappam while making. When you are lazy to prepare fresh coconut chutney, take this chutney powder and drizzle some coconut oil and relish with any south Indian breakfast items. It works just fine with North Indian Parata as plain or mix it with sweetened curds and relish. It tastes yummy with hot rice as well with ghee. Sometimes I even use this chutney powder as a stuffing for some veggies as well 😉. So, overall it is a multi-dimensional ingredient.

Garlic is intensely high on aroma as well as flavour. When you roast it and use it, aroma increases even more. It is considered as very good for human health. Garlic is widely used in medicinal purpose to combat many illnesses.

As we grow coconut in our coastal area, chutney powder will be made by adding dried coconut and because of its no moisture content, shelf life of the powder increases, and health benefit of dry coconut can be included by this way as well. Health benefit of dry coconut is many, and it contains many essential nutrients, dietary fibres and some important minerals as well.

I use Urad dal for its nutritional benefit as well as for its aroma with added benefits from the Chillies and curry leaves as well as sharing one more version of  chutney powder with added neem  flower at the end of this post.   

Now I will jump into the procedure –

Ingredients:

Dry coconut / Copra – 2

Dry red chillies – 20 to 25 (Byadagi)

Urad dal – 1 to 2 table spoons

Garlic – 2 (whole)

Curry leaves – 10 – 15 strings

Tamarind – 1 tea spoon

Salt – as needed

Sugar or jaggery powder – as needed.

-At first, slice coconut into thin chips.

-I usually air dry these slices for one or two days in open air (optional)

-Wash curry leaves and spread this to air dry.

-Dry coconut has high degree of oil content and while roasting and powdering, it tends to leave oil and becomes wet. When I tried to make after air drying, it never becomes wet and powdering becomes very easy.

-After air drying, make powder by using mixer grinder. This step will help in equal roasting.

-Take one kadai, dry roast urad dal until it becomes light brown.

-Dry roast garlic (I usually clean only loose skin of garlic clove and leave inner skin intact).

-Dry roast air dried curry leaves until crisp.

-Roast Red chillies by sprinkling some coconut oil.

-Dry roast coconut powder.

-Spread everything and cool.

-Take one mixer grinder, powder urad dal, red chillies at first. Then add curry leaves and powder.

-To this add garlic and use “PULSE” option and churn for a short interval.

-Now you will see a mass of masala.

-Take out all this and mix with roasted and cooled coconut.

-Now add salt, sugar or jaggery, tamarind and mix.

-Now take this mixture little by little and “pulse” in a mixer grinder to attain powder form.

-After completing the procedure, use dry hand and mix a whole lot of chutney powder nicely in one vessel.

-Check for salt, sugar, chilli.

-If needed add red chilli powder, salt or sugar and adjust.

-After it cools down, store it in a dry container. It stays good for 3 to 4 months in normal temperature or without any refrigeration.

Garlic Chutney powder with Neem Flower: Perfect for winter months.

Same recipe to follow and If you want to add Neem flowers in this chutney recipe, you can use dried neem flowers with all the other ingredients of garlic chutney powder.

Dry roast sun dried flowers for a couple of minutes, cool and add with other ingredients while dry grinding the powder and enhance the nutrition value during winter months.

It equally tastes great like regular garlic chutney powder.

 

 

 

 

Ash gourd peel chutney:

In our native, we get very good, thick fleshed Ash gourd and usually outer skin (we call it as Odu) will be hard and usually remove ¼ an inch thick. After this we usually scrape the outer green part and use it in a dry curry/Subzi/palya. But what I get it in Bangalore has very thin outer skin and I usually peel only outer green part and use it in a really tasty chutney and it is very healthy as well as pairs very well with hot rice or Dosa or idly.

chutney

Ingredient:

Ash gourd peel – Whatever is available.

Green chillies – 2 to 3

Salt

Tamarind – ½ tea spoon

Coconut – ¼ cup to ½ cup

Method:

-Chop the peels and cook this with green chillies, tamarind and salt by adding very little water.

-When it is cooked, switch off the gas and cool the mixture.

-Grind with coconut by adding little water.

-Add seasoning as you wish.

-Serve either with rice or Dosa.