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Herbal and Wellness

Dried Drumstick Leaves (Murunga Kola)

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Whole dried murunga leaves for mallum and dhal, the leaf before it becomes a powder.

  • Whole leaves, hand-stripped from the stalk
  • Rehydrates in about ten minutes of warm water
  • Cooks down soft and dark, the way fresh leaf does
  • Shade-dried, not oven-blasted
  • The cooking format, where the powder is the drinking one
$10

Available to pre-orderSKU: CC-MOR-LEF

Size: 50g

  • Carefully packed and shipped to your door
  • 14-day replacement on damaged items
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Description

The small round leaves of the drumstick tree, stripped from their stalks and dried whole. Where moringa powder is for drinks and smoothies, dried murunga leaf is for cooking: rehydrated into a mallum with scraped coconut, or dropped straight into a dhal or a soup near the end.

Murunga leaf is one of those ingredients that is free in Sri Lanka and impossible everywhere else. The tree grows like a weed, and stripping leaves off the stalk is the sort of job that gets handed to whoever is sitting nearest the kitchen door.

Cooked, it goes soft and dark and slightly sweet, nothing like the sharp green taste of the raw leaf. In a mallum with coconut, lime and a little chilli it is one of the plainest good things on a rice and curry plate.

Drying it whole rather than milling it keeps that texture available. Ten minutes in warm water and the leaves come back enough to cook like fresh ones. A powder cannot do that, which is why we sell both.

How to Use

  • Soak briefly, then cook as a mallum with scraped coconut
  • Drop a handful into dhal for the last five minutes
  • Stir into a clear soup or a rice congee
  • Cook with garlic, chilli and a squeeze of lime

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Frequently Asked

For a mallum, yes. Ten minutes in warm water brings back enough softness that they cook like fresh leaf and take on the coconut properly. For a dhal or a soup, skip it and let the pot do the rehydrating.

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