Malabar spinach is an excellent source of many health benefits and you can easily grow them organic way.
In some of my earlier posts, I have shared about my passion of doing a bit of container gardening and this time I have grown three Malabar spinach (Basella alba) as I am a big fan of Malabar spinach fry (ପୋଇପତ୍ର ପିଠା). Today I am going to share the recipe for Malabar spinach Fry. You can find out unlimited health benefits of eating Malabar spinach in internet (A big list that contains Antioxidants,Oxalic acid,Vitamins A,C, Iron,Calcium,Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Potassium etc), my intention in this post is to show you that its damn easy to grow them organically and try out a very simple recipe. Since they started to grow, we have tried this three times till now , and its definitely more tasty than the ones prepared from Malabar spinach bought from market, as its pesticide free.
Take out some healthy leaves and wash them and keep ready as shown above. Take around 100 gm of rice and soak in warm water for a hour ( to grind it for a paste). Once its ready, grind it with a piece of ginger and 2 teaspoon of Cumin seeds,few garlic cloves. Then keep it in a container, add salt, a little turmeric powder, a pinch of hing (asafoetida) and Gram flour to make it like a batter.
Then all you need is to take couple of leaves and put it in the batter and fry it on a pan. Add Mustard oil for better taste, any other regular oil you use for cooking also will work. I get the Mustard oil from Fab India, its a bit expensive, but I consider spending money for eating better is worth it. You will have to fry both the sides on low flame for some time to make it crispy.
And then finally served with my favorite water rice and curd. I am sure, once you taste this, you will have it in your menu every week. And you can also use the stems of Malabar spinach along with small leaves in some mixed vegetable curry. There are many tasty items that can be explored. Malabar spinach keeps growing again after you cut the stems, so once you plant it, it will serve you at least for 2-3 months. And just 2-3 plants is enough for a family.
By the way, my ladies fingers have now grown and I got the
first yield yesterday. It gives immense pleasure, when you get something from the effort you put. I am sure, anyone can start doing a little. Once you start enjoying the yields, you will love to do more.
