Name: Manathakkali Keerai Kootu Recipe | Black Nightshade Greens Kootu
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 2 Cups Manathakkali Keerai (Black Nightshade Greens) (Tightly packed. 1 Cup - 250ml); 1 tsp Sugar; 1 tsp Salt; 3 tbsp Moong Dal; 1 Pinch Turmeric Powder; ¼ Cup Grated Coconut; 1 tsp Cumin Seeds; 1 Red Chili; 1 tsp Rice Flour; 1 tsp Oil; 1 tsp Mustard Seeds; 2 tsp Split Urad Dal; Few Curry leaves

Manathakkali Keerai Kootu Recipe | Black Nightshade Stew Recipe

4.25 from 8 votes

Manathakkali known as Black Night Shade is one of the nutritious greens. The green berries, ripe berries, leaves are all used to make different variety of recipes. In this recipe, we are going to use freshly plucked greens of Black Nightshade plant and concoct with coconut based spice paste along with moong dal to a delectable Kootu. We can relish this Manathakkali Kai Kootu with Rasam, Sambar or any Kuzhambu varieties.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

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Manathakkali Keerai which is called as Black Night Shade in english is a very healthy greens. We generally prepare thanni saru which is very healthy and it is a very good home remedy for mouth ulcer. We need to use the leaves as the its stem is bitter and we need to discard. Using this healthy keerai, we make the thanni saru and kootu. Manathakkali Keerai Kootu, a very delicious kootu which goes well with all types of kuzhambu and rasam. One of the important point which we need to keep in mind about any greens is that, it takes a little longer time to digest this keerai and hence it is advisable to consume this during morning hours. We need to avoid eating in the night. Also during rainy season avoid cooking any greens. Enjoy this delicious kootu!

Tips to make Manathakkali Keerai Kootu

Always wash the greens thoroughly to wash off the dirt. We can pluck leaves and soak in a bucket full of water and leave it aside for atleast 15 mins. Any sand in the greens gets settled down and we can gently take out the floating leaves.
Conventionally baking soda mixed with little water is added to greens while cooking to prevent decolorization, but we can also add turmeric instead of baking soda
Spinach releases a lot of water as it cooks, so just sprinkle very little water to cook
For cooking any greens, do not add salt at first, the greens becomes very less in quantity once they are cooked and so, we need to add the salt later so that its not over salted

Recipe Card for Manathakkali Keerai Kootu Recipe | Black Nightshade Stew Recipe:

Instructions with Step by Step Pictures:

Pluck the leaves of manathakkali keerai and put it in a big broad vessel. Add lots of water to the bowl and soak the leaves and leave it for 10 minutes. The sand particles gets settled in the bottom of the vessel. Slowly and gently remove the leaves that are floating at the top without stirring the water. Again repeat the process till we are sure there are no sand particles. Finally add the leaves to the boiling water to get rid of any germs. For any greens, cleaning process takes more time than cooking. But this step is mandatory and hence we should have more patience in cooking greens. Chop the leaves and keep it ready. Pressure cook the moongdal.

Heat a pan and add the chopped keerai. To this add 1/4 cup of water along with turmeric powder and salt and cook in medium flame. The keerai would cook very quickly. Take the grinding ingredients in a mixer and grind it to a smooth paste

Mash the cooked dal and add mashed dal to the cooked keerai and mix well.

Finally add ground paste and mix well. When the keerai kootu starts to boil, switch off the flame. Heat another pan, add oil and when the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and when it starts to sputter, add uriddal and broken red chilli and saute it till the dal turns golden brown. Add these seasoned ingredients to the cooked kootu and mix well