Saturday, April 21, 2007

M for Mooli-wadi sabzi :)

Once again, its time to join for Nupur's A-Z potluck and this week she features the letter M. and i decided to make M for mooli-wadi di sabzi! Mooli or radish is a fantastic vegetable, spicy and pungent in taste, its available in different sizes and colors. This vegetable is rich in sulphur, which also is the reason behind the typical mooli smell. Mooli is very versatile too, featuring in parathas, floating happily in sambhar, relishes and raitas! and i use and love mooli in each of these forms. While we many of us are familiar with mooli parathas and to an extent mooli sambhar, a lot of people are shocked when they hear the words mooli-raita (a traditional Kashmiri dish muj chetin). Mooli and dahi, nahin-nahin, is what some utter-but one spoon full in their mouth and they go wow! its heavenly indeed, so folks, do try it! Anita tells you how :). We Punjabis love our moolis too, and our use of mooli is not limited to parathas. We make simple but delicious sabzis with this lovely vegetable.


One of the most popular mooli sabzis in Punjab is grated mooli sauted and cooked with masala wadis. and the other one is the mooli bhurji, made out of chopped mooli and mooli leaves :). None of these preparations use any onion, garlic and tomato. We'll prepare the mooli-wadi sabzi today. Usually this dish is made with coarse grated mooli, but many a time i grate my moolis fine. Try both, they both taste different! and i also add the chopped mooli leaves, which usually are used only in mooli bhurji. it gives a nice colorful touch to the sabzi. You can also use red mooli (small red bunch radishes) for this preparation too-looks very pretty and equally tasty!

So, lets start :).


We need:

  • Two moolis with leaves
  • 2-3 Punjabi masala wadis
  • 1/4 tsp. jeera
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric and red chilli powder to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • 1-2 tsp. oil
Remove the leaves from the moolis. Wash and chop the leaves and keep aside. Scrape the moolis and grate them (fine or coarse-your choice). Squeeze the water out of the grated moolis (save this water and use it soon for making dough for phulkas, or daal etc.). In a pan, heat oil and splutter the jeera. Add turmeric and red chilli powder, followed by the graped moolis. Mix well and add the chopped leaves. Add salt and stir well. Now crush the wadis into small pieces. Cover the pan and cook on low heat with occassional stirring, till done. The wadis should become softer (softer than they are, but still gritty) and we are ready to go!


Serve hot with chapati or parantha. Simple goodness!




Note: Good Punjabi wadis have a lil' hing and when cooked they get a slightly tangy flavor. i have occasionally found good wadis here, but nothing to beat the Amritsari wadis! The wadis have a whole bunch of other spices, so no need to add garam masala. You may try other spice wadis as well. Addition of a lil' amchoor is welcome, if you love tangy taste. and those who run away from the mooli smell, keep the exhaust on-and cooking also helps turn the raw mooli smell into a spicy aroma. Also, as i stressed before, the mooli water should be used quickly.

38 comments:

Pelicano said...

Oh...this looks great Musical! I want to make this very badly, but I can't get masala wadis here. Do you have a recipe for them?

FH said...

Wonderful girl.Authentic Punju food,eh?:))

I bought a big Daikon yesterday!

Nupur said...

Awesome stuff, musical! I have been making loads of radish sambar and radish pachadi (basically raita, but with the radish sauteed briefly, and with a tadka of curry leaves). Now I need to get my hands on some wadis and try this out!

Richa said...

that's cool! very nice recipe. good tip to use the leaves as well. mere kol jedi wadia haegia bot spicy ne. back home mooli was a part of daily salad, fresh from the garden ;-) thanks

Anonymous said...

I too used to use the mooli leaves of the red radishes when I cooked with it in the US - paranthas, mujj chatin...get more out of those tiny radishes, the frugal cook that I am!

I welcome this new wadi recipe - I have just the one that I use again and again - but wadi-aloo is a classic you'll agree!

musical said...

Hey Pel:

Thanks dear. Ah! may be you should ask your local Indian store to get you some. Wadi making is an elaborate process. It needs lots of grinding, a very good grinder that can do dry grinding and also plenty of sunshine. I can get a recipe, though. Will let you know once i do.

Ashakka:

Thanks a lot :). it happens to me too, when i read Imam Bayildi on your blog, i had eggplants sitting in my regrigerator, bought the previous day! Have a great weekend :).

musical said...

Hey Nupur,

You are really generous.....(blushes). Try this one, if you like radishes, you'll love this one :). Will try your recipe of raita/pachadi-sounds delicious.


Hey Richa:

Oh yaar, wadi taan spicy hi wadhiya lagdi e :). mainu bhej diyo. i love spicy wadis!! and yes, i miss having mooli in salads.....the red mooli is not as spicy! i love mooli leaves, and use them in the recipe too (though traditionally i have seen them being used only in bhurji).....


Anita:

i agree with you about aloo-wadi :). Ah! its making me drool. But Punjus make this one quite frequently too.....its more of a quick simple dish for winters. and leaves are really traditionally used in the mooli-bhurji (stir fried pieces with leaves). and we desis love our greens, don't we :). But i feel the red mooli leaves are bland compared to the regular mooli. So when i get regular mooli with leaves (which is not very common-they usually sell them without leaves), i chop and freeze them!

Sig said...

Hey sweety, great traditional recipe. I don't do much with radishes, never used the leaves. Guess I need to expand my grocery shopping list to some more veggies, finding new wonderful recipes everywhere.

Pinki said...

Hi Musical, WOnderful, I love Mooli Everything!! My mom had a variation of this recipe..Sh also add besan to it!! Did you try it before with besan?

musical said...

Hey Sig,

Yup, do add radishes to your grocery list.....they are swesome :). Punjus eat them as salad too with lime and salt. and i love mooli-sambar and raita besides the Punju recipes. i recently tried a Chinese style stir-fry too with radishes-tasted pretty good! will post that sometime.

Hello Pinki,

Welcome to my blog :). Besan wali mooli sounds great, will try it-haven't had it before though. i am sure besan adds great body to the dish. Thanks for this tip :).

Anonymous said...

Thats a unique sabji. I am fed up of eating same mooli dishes over and over again. This goes into my todo list. Thanks for sharing.

musical said...

Hey Shilpa,

Do try this, hope you'll like it. What mooli recipes do you prepare regularly-i would love to try some of those.

Pelicano said...

Musical-
If you do find a recipe to send to me I would have no problem making it... [ponders] I could even sell them for extra cash! :-D

Have you ever tried Chinese-style preserved radish? It has a chewy texture from the process they go through...it takes awhile, but easy to make: slice and julienne the radishes...then dry them thoroughly (sun-drying is traditional) then, soak them in salt water until they re-hydrate...then dry them again. When you want to use them, soak them in plain water and drain. It sounds ridiculous with all these steps, but gives it such an interesting texture...

musical said...

Hey Pel:

Never tried this radish preserve, but seems like a good idea! Thanks a lot for sharing :).

Rachna said...

Hey Musy, I love the punjabi connection here (btwm dumela and musical) and I just made mooli de patte di bhurji, gosh my khana is so much like yurs .... what is going on here?!!!

Hey i remember my mom used to make these wadis at home, dried them in the sun, r they the same ones?, lemme get the recipe from her, make them, blog about it and them make them with mooli...

Coffee said...

Thats great!!!! I love wadi's!!!! Wadi and mooli sounds delicious!! :)

bee said...

the gonglu is back. have bookmarked this recipe. your recipes are warming me up to this veggie.

Sia said...

ah!!! smelly cat? i mean mooli;) thats one cool recipe musical. so little ingredients? gr8...my kind of food then:)
first time i saw these vadis here i thought they r used for deep frying like the sendiges we make... he he he... then i came to know how to use them in cooking:) what i would have done w/o food blogs?!!! he he he...

musical said...

Dumela:

Hey, good to see the connection :). Yup, these are same wadids made out of daal and spices etc and then sun dried. i would any day make them myself, but my apartment has no balcony etc. but if you have enough space to sun dry them, do make them yourself. that way you can control the spice level to your taste :-D.

Coffee:

i love wadis too, yippeeeeeee!

musical said...

Bee:

Great! try and lemme know how it works for you.

Sia:

i love recipes with minimum ingredients too :-D. aha! so you call mooli smelly cat :)). and i agree, food blogs have done a lot to make us more knowledgeable about Indian food and culture.

Bong Mom said...

I love the red radish better than the white mooli.
Not a big fan of White Mooli. But had a question about the Masala Wadis. I got some from the Grocery store here, just fried and crumble d them on my Charchari but they were a bit hard. It seemed they would do good in a gravy where they could soak in the liquid

Which Brand of Wadi is good you think ?

musical said...

Hey Sandeepa,

This dish goes well withred mooli too. The wadis need not be soaked, mooli has enough water to cook them. But they never turn melt in your mouth soft, instead they remain chewy and gritty. But should NOT fry them. those type of wadis are different. i have never found consistency with the brands of wadis-the same store will never have the same brand, except may be big stores like Patel Brothers (wasb't too impressed with their wadis). Right now i have Hari brand and they taste a bit better. i'll try getting a recipe for the wadis though!

Seema Bhat said...

Musical, Minimal ingredients are a great plus here. Quick and easy and to top it all very healthy. Thanx for sharing.

musical said...

Hey Seema,

Thanks dear.....i agree, this one combines simplicty, flavor and health together :). Enjoy!

Prema Sundar said...

This recipe is new to me. I have made radish sambar and mooli roti but subzi is new. looks good and thanks for sharing.

musical said...

Hey Prema,

Thanks to you too, for dropping by.....hope you try this one and like it :).

Swapna said...

Muli has a taste of its own. I love eating muli slices with a dash of lemon juice and salt..Muli paratha tastes amazing..I loved ur recipe..

musical said...

Hey Swapna:

I agree about the mooli slices with lemon and salt :). Perfect snack for sunny wintery afternoons. glad you liked the recipe.

TNL said...

hey surili1

i do like this veggie...some ppl think its smelly...but I like that kinda tangy smell...and your version looks very good...I'd mix some dahi in it though! :)

ttyl...my laptop is being repaired so may or may not post this week...you take care, and drop me a line sometime.
hugs,
trupti

musical said...

Hey Trupti,

I love the idea of adding dahi to this :-D. dahi and mooli go really well together. aha! your laptop is being repaired! first Sia and now you.....hope your laptop is back to business soon :).

Cheers, will catch up with you soon.

surili.

Sharmi said...

you reminded me of my moms Muli ka Paratha. My hubby hates the smell of muli so stopped buying them after marriage. but you tempt me to make some and have a war at home:))

musical said...

Hey Sharmi, that totally cracked me up :)).

Raaga said...

I should try this for a weeknight dinner... would go well with rice and dal too?

Also don't the wadis need to be pressure cooked?

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Unknown said...


it is my first time visit i here. Mooli ki bhaaji looks good even though I never had it before. thankyou for shearing this information with us!chowringhee laxmi nagar

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