Moringa powder

The drumstick/ moringa tree is lauded as a miracle tree. Moringa is believed to have many benefits and its uses range from health and beauty to helping prevent and cure diseases. IMHO, our ancestors always knew this and used this regularly (seasonally) in their diet in the form of sambhar, dosa, kootu, curry, soups etc.

However, there is a lot of ‘hype’ around this now and like a lot of other food, this now comes in the form of ‘pills’ for ease of consumption. I am never for popping pills when the same can be consumed as proper food. Now, ideally my preferred way of consumption is still to include drumstick & its leaves in regular food that is chewable. However, we once got a huge batch of drum stick leaves & we knew there was no way we would be able to finish it all. So we thought, we’ll dry it and make it into a podi/ powder similar to what’s actually being sold outside for an exorbitant amount.

Early morning instead of having a cup of coffee or tea, my mil/ fil started having this in a cup of hot water with a dash of honey. I never have coffee/ tea getting up first thing & I have a hot glass of water. So this was easy for me to add in to and I do not need to sweeten it with anything. I have this hot moringa water every morning now. Now, it has become kind of a ritual for us and we make stock of this podi. I have 1/2 tsp of this everyday with water (not a lot since consuming a lot of moringa just like any other food isn’t good as well). Being a mom, I try and add this to Adya’s dosa, molagapodi etc :D. He is slowly starting to say ‘NO’ to the regular form of moringa leaves now sadly :(. Note – The rest of us still eat moringa in our sambhars & curries and there is no change to that. This has just become in addition to that.

So if you get your hand on a big batch of moringa leaves or you are someone who dislikes moringa leaves, then this is for you. If you are someone who actually purchases moring pill/ powder, then this is definitely for you (you will profusely thank me later). If you are also someone who consumes coffee/ tea first thing in the morning, you can try and swap with something like this. Now you coffee/ tea lovers please do not come and slap me :D. This is just a suggestion :).

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Moringa powder

Prep Time

30 mins

Drying & Grinding time

6 hrs 20 mins

 

Course: Masalas/ spice powders

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

• 2 bunch murungakkai/ moringa leaves roughly 6 loose cups

Instructions

1. Clean/ de-stem the murungakkai/ moringa leaves.

2. Wash it well and dry it for a few hours (5-6 hours) on a muslin/ cotton cloth.

3. After 5-6 hours, you will notice the moringa leaves are fairly dry.

4. At this stage, take 2 cups of moringa leaves & spread it on a regular microwaveable dinner plate.

5. Microwave on high heat for 3 minutes. Open & gently toss with a spatula.

6. Microwave for another 2 minutes. Take it out and transfer to a wide bowl and let it cool down (your moringa leaves must be crispy & crunchy now).

7. Repeat the microwave process for the rest of the leaves.

8. Once all the leaves have been crisped up and cooled down, place all the leaves in a mixer jar and grind till you have a smooth fine powder.

9. Transfer to an airtight container & use it as and when you want to.

Recipe Notes

1. I add 1/2t of this powder with a hot cup of water and have it every morning. My mil has this with some honey but I have it just plain. 
2. Other ideas of consumption are to add it to you dosa/ idli/ idli podi. 
3. You can shade dry the leaves in your balcony but mil says sometimes the leaves get too dusty (this is for us in Dubai). 
4. You can obviously make this is in bigger or smaller batches. 
5. Washing the leaves is a pain apparently (our house help did this part) because the leaves stick to your hands but for all its glory, totally worth it I think. 

Stepwise pictures