Manathakkali Keerai Thogayal recipe with video. A healthy and quick thogayal recipe made using manathakkali keerai also known as “Black Night Shade Leaves” in English that can be served either mixed with rice or as a side dish to sambar or rasam rice.
My Grandpa was insistent on using at least one green in our daily diet and back then it was easier to incorporate that as my grandma kept a thriving garden.
There was no plant that wasn’t there. In fact, I can confidently say that we were almost self sufficient in our daily requirement of our day to day vegetables and greens.
Manathakkali keerai is known to cure mouth ulcers and as a kid I loved plucking the over ripe berries and eating it raw.
Most of those berries were patiently plucked to be sun dried for later use to make manathakkali vathal kulambu.
Apart from making “Thanni Saaru” which is actually like a soup, kootu was also made using the leaves.
But this manathakkali keerai thogayal is my favorite. It brings back memories when my grandma used to mix it with rice along with a big dollop of homemade ghee, make small balls of them and put it on my palm for me to eat it up.
I will be holding up either an appalam or vadam is another hand and a bite of it will follow after a mouthful of rice.
All of us, the grandchildren will be sitting in a row in front of her and in no time our lunch will get over without any fuss from us under the strict watchful eyes of our grandpa.
But now feeding the kids especially when it comes to greens has become a nightmare of sorts.
Stepwise recipe for Manathakkali Keerai Thogayal:
1. Heat a pan with 1 teaspoon oil. Add dry red chilies till they slightly turn to a dark color. Drain and keep aside.
2. Add 1 more teaspoon oil to the same pan. Add manathakkali keerai and saute well till they shrink in size, change color completely. Take the pan off fire. Keep aside to cool.
3. Transfer sauteed keerai, roasted red chilies, drained tamarind and salt to a mixer jar.
4. Grind to a smooth paste using little water that is used to soak the tamarind. Keep aside.
5. Heat the same pan with 1 teaspoon oil. Season with vengaya thalippu vadagam and chana dal. Add crushed garlic pods and cook over low flame till the chana dal turn golden in color and the garlic turns to brown color.
6. Add the ground keerai paste to the pan and mix well. Cook over low flame for 1 minute mixing well. Switch off the stove and manathakkali keerai thogayal is ready to be served mixed with rice.
This thogayal tends to darken in color a bit after cooked due to oxidisation. You can store this in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days to be consumed for later.
Recipe Notes:
If you do not happen to have thalippu vadagam on hand, season with ½ teaspoon each of mustard and cumin seeds.
Other thogayal recipes that you may be interested are
You can also try out this Manathakkali Keerai Soup.
Manathakkali Keerai Thogayal video tutorial:
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Manathakkali Keerai Thogayal Recipe details below:
Recipe
Manathakkali Keerai Thogayal Recipe
Ingredients
- Manathakkali Keerai - 1 bunch
- Dry whole red chilies - 12 to 15
- Tamarind - 1 big lemon size
- Vengaya thalippu vadagam - ½ tbsp
- Chana dal - 2 tsp optional
- Garlic pods - 10 crushed
- Salt - to taste
- Oil - 1 tbsp divided
Instructions
Preparation:
- Clean, wash and dry the manathakkali leaves before hand.
- Soak tamarind in ⅛ cup hot water for 10 mins.
How to make Manathakkali Keerai Thogayal:
- Heat a pan with 1 teaspoon oil. Add dry red chilies till they slightly turn to a dark color. Drain and keep aside.
- Add 1 more teaspoon oil to the same pan. Add manathakkali keerai and saute well till they shrink in size, change color completely. Take the pan off fire. Keep aside to cool.
- Transfer sauteed keerai, roasted red chilies, drained tamarind and salt to a mixer jar. Grind to a smooth paste using little water that is used to soak the tamarind. Keep aside.
- Heat the same pan with 1 teaspoon oil. Season with vengaya thalippu vadagam and chana dal, if using. Roast till fragrant.
- Add crushed garlic pods and cook over low flame till the chana dal turn golden in color and the garlic turns to a light brown color.
- Add the ground keerai paste to the pan and mix well to combine. Cook over low flame for 1 minute mixing well. Switch off the stove.
- Manathakkali keerai thogayal is ready.
How to serve Manathakkali keerai thogayal:
- Take required amount of cooked hot rice in a plate. Add 1 to 2 teaspoon of sesame oil or ghee, required amount of manathakkali keerai thogayal, say 3 to 4 teaspoon and mix well using your finger tips. Serve this rice with chips of appalam.
- You can also serve this thogayal as a side dish to any kulambu or rasam sadam.
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