Radish Greens Poriyal

I try my best to include greens in our menu atleast twice a week. Also, I have the anxiety to try out different greens and this is one such experiment made out of radish greens. I visited whole foods for my grocery shopping and the small radish bunches with fresh greens on it caught my eyes and I grabbed them. I have cooked radish greens before and made curry with peanuts ( I will try to share this recipe later), but this is a attempt with a different flavor. Hope you like it.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1. Radish greens - finely chopped - 1 1/2 cups

2. Onions - finely chopped - 1/4 cup

3. Oil - 1/2 tablespoon

4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

5. Curry leaves - 5 to 6

6. Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

7. Salt - to taste

To Grind:

1.  Coconut - 3 to 4 tablespoon

2. Turmeric powder - a pinch

3. Garlic pods - 2 

4. Red chilies - 1 to 2 (depending on your spice level)

Preparation: 
1. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, when it splutters add cumin seeds and onions and saute until onion becomes translucent
2. Now add the radish greens ( i used only leaves and discarded the stems) and stir well and cook it for 3 to 4 minutes
3. Meanwhile dry grind all ingredients given under 'to grind'. Do not add water
4. Add the ground mixture and required salt to the pan and mix well
5. Sprinkle few drops of water and close the pan and cook in slow flame for 7 to 8 minutes until the raw smell goes away

Radish greens is ready to be served and it goes well with Sambhar or Rasam rice.

Tips:
1. You can avoid garlic if you don't like the flavor
2. Instead of seasoning cumin seeds, you can grind it along with the other ingredients
3. Use small onions (shallots) for additional flavor

Drumstick Leaves Curry (முருங்கைகீரை பொறியல்)

I am not really a big fan of drumstick leaves, but really got excited when I happened to see this in Indian grocery store recently. Though I knew cleaning up the leaves is a huge task, I decided to go for it and the dish came out well.

Drumstick leaves often has a bitter taste for which we use coconut to remove excessive bitterness. This is a very basic dish from the leaves, but please take care to clean the leaves well before use.

Servings -4 

Ingredients:

1. Drumstick leaves - 1/2 pound

2. Onion - 1 finely chopped

3. Red chilies -3 to 4

4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

5. Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon

6. Asafoetida - a pinch

7. Oil - 1 tablespoon

8. Coconut - grated 4 tablespoons

9. Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. The very important step of this dish is to clean and separate the leaves from stems and wash them thoroughly and drain it.

2. Heat oil in a pan and season it with mustard seeds, urad dhal, asafoetida and red chilies.

3. Add onions, drumstick leaves, salt and saute it well. Sprinkle little water and cook the leaves by closing a lid in medium flame.

4. When the leaves are cooked add the grated coconut and mix well.

Healthy, tasty drumstick leaves poriyal is ready to be served.