Drumstick / Moringa

In our fast changing world where everything needs to be achieved yesterday and all possible shortcuts are welcomed and used for daily living...so too is the quest for healthy anti ageing miracle foods which boost our immunity and give us the satisfaction of doing good for our body which we may otherwise ignore while multi tasking from day to day !!!
While many of us look outside of our own cuisine...to the west who thankfully remind us of the health benefits of foods /herbs/grains that we have around us,that we may have long forgotten or tend to take for granted until we are given a reminder in the form of a glossy article in a magazine dedicated to a healthy lifestyle !!!

While we are trying to include flax seed, quinoa, goji berries,alfalfa...in our diet we must keep in mind the benefits of foods that are around us and are far easily available and workable into an Indian diet like our humble DRUMSTICK TREE...or otherwise known as Moringa Oleifera or The Tree of Life !

I wonder where to begin to give you the benefits of this amazing tree,which is an amazing powerhouse of anti oxidants ,vitamins and minerals ...provided through its,flowers,fruit and leaves .In India we call it the drumstick and it grows easily everywhere,very sadly you do see it neglected on the roadsides,lush with its leaves and drumsticks aplenty and it makes you wonder how many hungry mouthfuls will that one tree be able to nourish and why is it that it is so ignored ?!!!
It is the most nutrient dense plant on earth with46 antioxidants,36 anti-inflammatories,vitamins,minerals,omega oils and 18 amino acids,including 9 vital proteins rarely found intact in our food sign,this I came to know recently from an article in PREVENTION magazine !
It further goes to say that it was named 'botanical of the year' in 2008 by the institute of national health USA as it assists in the treatment and prevention of more than 300 medical conditions including diabetes,blood pressure regulation,anaemia,circulatory system support,weight management and much more....

I certainly am going to add more of this delicious vegetable in my weekly diet and aren't we lucky that we Indians have for centuries known the perfect way to cook them and enhance their flavour and have a patented method of extracting the flesh out of the pods !!!!
They go well with lentils,murrungakkai (drumstick )sambhar,take very well to spices and flavourings and the leaves are delicious mixed into wheat flour to make yummy chappathis(flat bread)...the very tender ones are plucked early to make delicious pickles that can be eaten whole as they are so tender....it was once a staple at the south Indian lunch table...we definitely need to pass on it's nutritional benefits to the next generation by introducing it more often at meal times...in the times of GM foods and super enhancers ,I salute our humble 'friend' in the garden...Long live the murrungakkai !!!