Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Manathangaali keerai / spinach

My friend Mrs. Raji Ramachandran grows this kind of greens in her backyard. We use the fruits (really tiny) as a side to many dishes, you can see the dry version here. This is very high in iron just like spinach. You would also cook it like any other spinach, south indian style.
However, this is a little different version, Mrs. Raji Ramachandran's version.

You wash the spinach and drain well. Cut in small pieces, keep aside. For 2 cups of spinach, you can use 1 cup of moong dal. Wash the dal, In a vessel, put the spinach, place the dal and add a little chili powder and salt on top. Do not mix. Place in cooker and let cook for atleast 3 whistles.
In a pan, add oil, add urad dal, red chili, cumin and let roast until you can smell the spices, don't burn them. Grind the spices with a little coconut and keep aside.
Once the pressure is off, put the spinach in the pan add the ground masala to this and give a tadka with mustard seeds, chili, and curry leaves. This will taste great with rice or hot rotis.

In the Picture Above, is a typical weekend lunch at out house, starting from left to right on top is
Rasam, White Rice, Brown Rice, Kovakkai (Tindora) Kari, Potato Kari, and Manathankaali Keerai.

1 comment:

FewMinute Wonders said...

Do you know that manathangaali keerai is full of B-Complex. When you have mouth sores chewing up some leaves will get rid of it very fast. I love the plant, leaves and its fruits. We had it in the backyard and I used love eating the fruits.