Drumstick leaves are always my favourite. I love everything made out of it. As you all know its rich in iron content and especially ladies who are pregnant need to take it for sure. Every doctor will prescribe iron tablets throughout pregnancy and even after post pregnancy. So it becomes a must take greens during pregnancy. When i was pregnant, we found it very difficult to get this leaves here. So my mom used to carry this greens wrapped in a wet cloth(to keep it fresh) from my hometown. I will soon post one more recipe on murungaikeerai kashayam, which i drank to get rid of the excess water accumulated. Everyone will face swelling in their legs during pregnancy and if you drink this kashayam, immediately the swelling will go off.

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients:

Drumstick leaves - 1 cup

Toor Dhal - 2 tbsp

Pearl Onion - 10

Green chillies - 4 nos

Seasoning

Mustard Seed - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method

Pressure cook the toor dhal to a level, that it is done 3/4th.

Mince the onion and chillies.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Once the mustard splutters, add the onions and green chillies.

Then add the greens and dhal(along with the little excess water used for cooking the dhal)

If you want you can even garnish it with scrapped coconut.

That's all serve it with hot sambar rice.

This is my lunch box with Raddish Sambar, murungaikeerai thuvattal and curd rice.

This lunchbox enters the Wholesome Lunchbox event conducted by Margot.

Also this am sending for the Food for 7 stages of life - Pregnancy (Zero hour) event hosted by Radhika and Sudeshna

This is one more easy dish, which can be made on the days we grind for idly batter. I either prepare paruppu adai or this one, on every batter grinding day. I have added drumstick leaves jus to add to the taste of the adai.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Thuar Dhal - 2 tbsp

Green Chillies - 4

Red Chillies - 4

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard+Urad dhal+ cumin seeds mixture - 2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Onion - 2 big

Green chillies - 2

Curry Leaves + coriander Leaves - few or Drumstick leaves.

Method:

Soak the rice and dhal together for 4 hours. In a grinder, add the chillies and fennel seeds.

Once they are grinded well, add the rice and dhal. Grind it to a smooth batter.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the items mentioned for seasoning.

Saute well till the raw smell goes off. Mix this with the batter, add salt and mix well.

The batter should be little thinner.

Heat the tawa and prepare adai's out of this batter.

If you add drumstick leaves, the taste will be heavenly.

I am sending this Arisi Adai to the Ravishing Rice event conducted by Nags

This is one more kind of preparing greens. 

Ingredients 

Arai Keerai - 1 bunch

Pearl Onions - 10

Green Chillies - 3

Red Chillies - 2

Coconut Scrapped - 2 tbsp

Seasoning

Mustard - 1tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Channa dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method

Sort the greens and wash it cleanly, to remove all the sand. 

Mince it nicely. Mince onion and chillies too. 

In a kadai, add a tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Then add the onion and chillies. Saute till the raw smell goes off. 

Then add the greens and salt. Mix well and wait until it gets cooked. No need to add water as the greens will get cooked in its own water. 

It will take jus 5 mins to cook. Once cooked, add the scrapped coconut and mix well. 

Serve hot with sambar rice. 

I think, everyone will be aware of the rich Iron content in the drumstick leaves. Unluckily, I was not able to find good drumstick leaves in any shop here. Either they will have a spoiled branch or dried branch. Its my favourite and was desperatly waiting for introducing this leaves to my kid. During our search for a play home for my kid, we found a fresh drumstick tree near my place, at the play school. I felt very bad, that the tree was unexplored till that time and it was only a few yards from my place. Anyway they didnt give admission for my kid, saying its too early to put him in a play home. I realized that i am running so fast for everything with my kid. But i felt happy for my discovery of drumstick leaves atlast. So with their permission am getting fresh bunch of leaves. I love everything made out of this, and the first thing that striked my mind was adding the leaves to the adai. 

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients 

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Toor Dhal - 1 cup

Channa dhal - 1/4 cup

Moong dhal - 1/4 cup

Urad dhal - 1/4 cup

Fried gram - 1/4 cup

Red Chillies - 8

Green Chllies - 2 

Pepper corns - 1 tsp

Gralic - 7 pods

Drumstick Leaves - 1 cup

Saunf - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1/2 tsp

Salt and oil as required

Onion - 2 big minced.

Method

Soak the both the rice together in a bowl. Mix all the dhal and soak them in a seperate bowl.

Let them be sokaed for an hour. 

In a mixer, add the garlic, chillies and saunf. Grind it to a smooth paste. 

Later add the rice and grind well. Add the dhal later and grind it coarsely. 

Add salt and aesfoetida and mix well. 

Heat a kadai and saute the minced onion with 1 tsp of oil. 

Once the onion turns translucent, add the randomnly cut drumstick leaves. Saute this for a minute. 

Add this to the batter and mix well. The batter should be little thick. 

In a tawa, prepare adai as we do for dosa. Be little liberal in using oil for getting crispy adai. 

Serve hot with crushed jaggery, which also is rich in Iron. This is truly a healthy meal(Iron + mor eprotein) esp for kids and ladies. 

I am sending this to Grammathu Kaimanam/Village Special Recipe Event hosted by Shama. 

also sending to SWC - Cooking with Greens event hosted by Sowmya

Curry leaves is the one which turns an ordinary dish into an aromatic dish. This helps a lot in digestion and many diseases related to food can be cured with the help of this small herb. Almost all of the Indian dishes use it while seasoning. We can also consume it with buttermilk, by crushing it into the buttermilk. Especially for women, it helps a lot in hair growth. 

This time my mom got a lot of fresh curry leaves from the garden. It was so fresh and hence i didn't want to waste by storing it for a long time in the fridge. Hence the thought of preparing karuveppilai thuvaiyal flashed my mind. 

Ingredients:

Curry Leaves - 1 cup

Red Chillies - 2

Green Chillies - 2

Urad Dhal - 1 tbsp

Tamarind - gooseberry sized

Coconut - 2 tbsp

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Method:

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil. Add the urad dhal and roast it till it turns golden brown.

Add the ginger and tamarind and saute well. Then add the chillies and saute for a min. 

Add the curry leaves and saute well. 

In a mixer add all the roasted ingredients, salt and coconut. Grind it to a smooth paste. 

This curry leaves will increase the body temperature. So if you want you can replace the tamarind with lemon juice. 

Serve this chutney with hot rice and a some ghee, if you are feeding your kids. It also goes well with idly/dosa. 

I am sending this to SWC - Cooking with Greens event hosted by Sowmya

This one is my kid's alltime favourite and on seeing an event hosted for kids love i thought of sharing it. Obviously this is transferred through ages . My granny's mother is a great cook it seems. I have never seen her in my life. Still my mother in law used to recall her cooking skills, whenever she do this. A small story and am praying GOD that my dear hubby shouldn't read it. I am married to my uncle's son. So all the relatives are common for us. My hubby was born on an Ashtami (Lord krishna's birth was also during an ashtami) with the naval chord around his neck (similar to krishna). My maternal grandma was so scared that, this birth may lead to any disaster in my family, especially to my MIL's brother or her family. This is believed as Krishna's birth killed kamasan, his uncle. So when my MIL got discharged from hospital and reached home, this great granny took the aarti for the kid(My husband). Soon after that she was paralysed and within a week she passed away. I dint have belief on all these, it may be coincidental. But I and the whole family used to tease my husband with this story and he will get damn angry for this. So that's the story of my great granny and my MIL will always point out this story along with her cooking skills. 

Ok lets soon jump into the recipe part. 

Ingredients:

Sirukeerai

Green chillies - 2(as my kid is having it)

Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup cooked. 

Pearl Onions - 10

Tomato - 1

Method:

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the onions, tomato and chilly and saute well. 

Add 1/2 cup of water and add the keerai. Close it with a lid and cook for 5 mins. 

Add the cooked dhal and grind it with a mansatty or mixer to a coarse paste. 

As i am giving it to my kid, i usually grind it smooth in the mixer. So that he can eat it well. 

I can really say this is my kids favourite for his lunch. I feel good nutrients along with proteins is sent to my kid through this recipe. So I often prepare it at least for him. 

This keerai kadaiyal enters the Cooking for Kids with Love a sweet event hosted by Jigyasa and Pratibha. I know its a late entrant. I am hoping for the best.