![]() I realise that vegetarians or vegans may be wondering if there’s any chance of salvaging this recipe for them, and this is what I suggest: besan chilla is often known as vegetarian omelette, and you can make it with moringa leaves. Skim milk is processed milk I would much rather drink natural milk with all the fat in it and retain all the nutrients we are supposed to get. While I’m on that thought, I should also say that I don’t believe in using skim milk. I use the whole egg, and I don’t believe in removing the yolk, which is full of nutritious goodness, including protein. The eggs I use in this recipe come from our hens – happy, bullying free range hens that produce organic eggs. I usually prepare about six months’ worth of stock, to reach for when I don’t have fresh moringa leaves or the time to go out and pluck them for a dish. I then dry-blend them to create the powder. ![]() The heat at this time of year is so intense that the leaves dry up in just a few hours. I pluck the leaves, pat them to clean them, and leave them out in the sun. I make moringa powder at home, since the method is quite easy during the summers. If you don’t have access to fresh moringa leaves in your part of the world, you can easily replace this ingredient with kale or another type of leafy green, or with moringa powder. The vegetable of the tree, which is commonly known as drumstick, is certainly edible of course. Funnily enough, I have noted that the stalks can be safely used in soups. Also, the stalks are not usually consumed, as they can cause indigestion. Unlike other green leaves, moringa cannot be eaten raw and takes some time to cook. Moringa leaves are versatile that way, and lately I’ve been taking my mother’s Gujarati-Tamil fusion to another level with a Continental-Tamil fusion: moringa leaves omelette. ![]() It was just convenient for my mother to go to the back garden, pluck some moringa leaves, chop them up, cook them and throw them into our theplas if there were no methi (fenugreek) leaves on hand. As you may know, my family are Gujaratis who have been settled in Tamil Nadu for generations, so it was very much a staple ingredient in my growing years. In fact, the English word comes from the Tamil word for the plant – “murunga”. For us in South India, the moringa plant literally grows in our own backyards and we take it for granted. Moringa leaves are considered a superfood by many.
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