MURINGAPOO MOLAGOOTAL, DRUMSTICK FLOWER MOLAGOOTAL

I am a nature lover and wherever I go, I always bring one plant, seed or a branch to plant it either in my balcony garden or in the society.  Today, as I was coming  from Happy Street from Upvan Lake, I happened to see the drumstick tree with full of flowers.  I could not resist myself from plucking one branch of the drusmtick plant and brought home.  I used the flowers with leaves  for making molagootal and planted the branch in my society which I was longing for quite some time.

Molagootal is a mild spicy dish with any vegetables or leafy vegetables with either moong, masoor or tur dal with coconut, roasted urid dal, fried red chilli and cumin seed paste added to the vegetables or leafy vegetables.    We can serve it along with phulkas, chapatis and rice.

Let us look at the recipe now:

Ingredients:

1 cup muringapoo (drumstick flower)

1/4 cup drumstick leaves

turmeric powder

salt

3 tbs tuvar or masoor or moong dal 

To grind:

2 tbsp grated coconut

1 tsp urid dal

1 red chilli

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1tsp oil

Tempering:

1 tsp urid dal

1 tsp mustard seeds

few curry leaves

1 broken red chilli

Method:

Wash the drumstick flower and leaves in salt water.  There might be insects in the flowers and leaves.  To remove them, we have to put them in salt water.  Wash properly and ensure that there is no insects in it.

Pressure cook the flowers,  leaves and dal with little salt  for one whistle in the pressure cooker. 

allow to cool. heat oil in kadai, fry the urid dal, red chilli.  grind together with coconut and cumin seeds with little water and keep aside.  remove the cooked flowers and dal from cooker and transfer to another vessel.  add the ground coconut paste and bring to boil. check salt and add if need be.    temper with the ingredients mentioned under tempering.

How to serve:

Serve hot with plain rice, roti, chapati and phulka.

Note:  similarly, you can add vegetables, leafy vegetables and make the molagootal instead of flowers and leaves.

FEW HEALTH BENEFITS OF DRUMSTICK LEAVES AND FLOWERS:

Drum stick flowers prevent frequent infections of the throat,chest and skin.  Drumstick flowers are small and round white flowers and are edible when cooked.

Fresh leaves are richest source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and many vital B Complex vitamins such as folates, Vitamin B 6, thiamin (vitamin B-1), riboflavin, pantothenic acid, niacin.  Greens are one of the finest sources of minerals like calcium, iron, copper, manganese,zinc, selenium and magnesium.  Iron alleviates anemia.  Calcium is required for bone mineralisation.