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.