At a glance

Time: about 30 minutes, one pot plus a small pan for the tempering.
Serves: 4 as a side, 2 as a main with rice.
Moringa: 2 teaspoons of powder, stirred in off the heat at the very end. That timing is the whole trick.
Taste: mild, coconut-rich, gently spiced. The moringa reads as a green, slightly grassy depth, the way spinach would.

Ask a Sri Lankan home cook what moringa is for and the answer is not a smoothie. It is a vegetable. The leaves, murunga kola, go into coconut-milk curries and into parippu, the red lentil dal that sits on almost every table on the island. The pods are cooked as drumsticks. Nobody measures it out in teaspoons; a handful of leaves goes in at the end and that is that.

Fresh leaves are hard to buy in the United States, but the powder is the same leaf with the water taken out, so it does the same job. This is the dal we make at home with it. It is not a wellness recipe. It is dinner.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 cup red lentils (masoor dal), rinsed until the water runs clear
2½ cups water
1 small onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 green chilli, slit lengthways (optional)
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
¾ cup coconut milk
2 teaspoons moringa leaf powder
Juice of half a lime

For the tempering (the tadka, or thel dala in Sinhala):

1 tablespoon coconut oil or neutral oil
½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 sprig fresh curry leaves (about 10 leaves), if you can get them
1 small shallot or ¼ onion, sliced
2 dried red chillies, optional
A few grinds of black pepper

Method

Simmer the lentils. Put the rinsed lentils, water, onion, garlic, green chilli, turmeric and salt in a pot. Bring to the boil, skim any foam, then simmer uncovered for 15 to 18 minutes, stirring now and then, until the lentils have collapsed and the dal is thick but still pourable. Add a splash of water if it gets stiff.
Add the coconut milk. Stir it in and let the dal come back to a gentle simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Do not boil it hard once the coconut milk is in; it can split.
Take it off the heat, then add the moringa. Turn the heat off. Stir the moringa powder into a couple of tablespoons of the hot dal in a cup to make a smooth paste, then stir that paste back through the pot. The residual heat is all it needs. Added this way it stays green and mild; boiled, it goes olive and bitter.
Make the tempering. In a small pan, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop, then the cumin, curry leaves, shallot and dried chillies. Fry, stirring, until the shallot is golden, about 2 minutes. Grind in the black pepper.
Finish. Pour the sizzling tempering over the dal, add the lime juice, stir once, and taste for salt. Serve with rice, roti or bread.

Notes from making it a lot

Two teaspoons is the sweet spot. One teaspoon disappears; three starts to taste like grass. The moringa should read the way a handful of spinach would.
Make the paste. Powder stirred straight into a full pot clumps. A spoonful of dal in a cup, powder in, stir, back in the pot: no lumps, every time.
Curry leaves are the flavour of the island. If you cannot find them, the dal is still good; it is just a plainer dal. Do not substitute bay leaves, they are nothing alike.
Leftovers thicken. Loosen with water when reheating, and reheat gently. The moringa will have dulled a shade overnight; the flavour is fine.
Fresh leaves: if you ever do get murunga kola, use a loose handful, stems removed, stirred in for the last 2 minutes of simmering instead of the powder.

Three of the spices in this pot, one origin

Moringa leaf powder, turmeric powder and whole black peppercorns, all single-origin Sri Lanka, packed at origin and shipped from Houston. USDA Organic, Fair Trade Certified, GMO Free.

Moringa Leaf Powder → · Turmeric Powder → · Black Pepper → · Moringa guide

FAQ

Can I cook moringa powder, or does it have to be raw?

You can cook it, and this recipe does; the point is timing. Stirred in off the heat it keeps its colour and mild flavour. Simmered for a long time it turns dull and bitter. Add it last.

Is this the same as Indian dal?

Close cousins. Sri Lankan parippu is usually made with red lentils and finished with coconut milk, which gives it a sweeter, richer body than most North Indian dals, and the tempering leans on curry leaves and mustard seed. Moringa leaves are a common addition on the island.

What else can I stir moringa powder into?

Any lentil soup, vegetable stew, coconut curry or even a pot of plain rice at the end of cooking. Our five ways to cook with moringa covers baking, dressings and tea too, and the smoothie recipes are the cold option.