Masala Drumstick or Spicy Drumsticks is a north indian recipe, which can be cooked with simple ingredients and tastes awesome. Scientific named Moringa Oleifera, also known as Saijan ki Phali in Hindi, or murungakkai down in southern part of India. If you love sambhar or come from southern part of India, then is it is likely you would have heard of drumsticks already. This drumstick masala recipe or drumstick masala curry is super easy and does not require major expertise in cooking.
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What is Drumstick
Drumstick is a fruit of drumstick tree and has other names such as moringa and is native to Indian subcontinent. It also has another name, called “saijan ke phalli“. The fruit itself is a slender shaped stick, green in color, when fresh. Because of its slender stick like shape, it gets its name, “drumstick”. Raw drumstick is fibrous on the outer skin, and has little pulp inside. It contains seeds or pods in the pulp.
Drumstick tree’s leaves are smaller in size, about 1cm and the tree itself is not a strong tree (like that of mango tree). Its leaves also have medicinal value, so does the flowers. Its flowers are small and white in color, which then grow into these long drumsticks.
The outer skin of drumstick is relatively soft when young, however it is never good enough to eat that skin.
Benefits of Drumstick
These drumsticks are full of nutrients. Being particularly high in vitamin C, they are also a good source of dietary fibre, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, at the same time these drumsticks barely contain any fat. How cool!
It helps regular blood sugar level as well as helps in purification of blood. Drumstick helps in boosting the natural immunity of the body, as well as helps in improving bone structure. It also is believed in improving the testosterone levels in men, TBH I will call drumstick as super food and rank it alongside avocado!
Drumstick Dry Masala Curry
This is a drumstick masala curry, and to make it, you need to cook raw drumstick with basic Indian spices. Process of making drumstick masala is absolutely straight forward, with no messy cooking and is one pot meal.
I grew up in Roorkee city of India and drumstick is known there, except for rare guest appearance of drumstick in sambhar, when I used to eat south Indian meal in my favourite restaurant. However, my partner was bought up in place where they had drumstick tree at home and is one of his favourite vegetable. I got exposed to drumstick via my mother-in-law and this drumstick masala recipe is from her recipe bank.
Being in UK, finding these drumsticks is not that easy, however, there are Indian superstores, which stock and sell this, hence every time I am shopping from those stores, I do not forget to add it in my grocery shopping.
Method of making drumstick masala
- First of all, peel, thoroughly rinse and chop the drumsticks into 3-4 inch pieces.
Raw Drumsticks 
Chopped Drumsticks 
Chopped and washed drumstick
- Take a Pan / Kadai and put oil into it and keep it on medium flame. When oil is warm, add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add chopped onion and sauté till its pinkish brown in colour.
- Now add chopped green chillies and grated ginger and sauté again for few seconds. Now add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, coriander powder, and dry mango powder and roast for a minute.
- Add chopped drumsticks and mix well. Now add 4 tablespoon of water to it. Cover the pan with lid and keep the flame to low. Cook it for 10-12 minutes until they are tender and well cooked.
- Open the lid and roast for 1 more minute and finally garam masala and switch off the flame.
Pro Tips
- Selecting the right type of drumstick for the curry is key. You must look for fresh green drumsticks, hold it in the hand and try to pierce the nail in its skin, it should leave a mark. If its mature drumstick, it will be hard to eat it.
- In my recipe here, I have not added tomatoes, however you can add it for added flavours. Add chopped tomatoes after onions are fried.
- This curry needs to be cooked on medium heat, high heat will cook only the outer later of drumsticks and pulp will be left raw.
How to eat Drumsticks
Eating drumstick is little different from other vegetables, its skin is hard and must not be eaten. You can eat drumstick in two ways, one where you will need to hold it from one end and pull the pulp out by holding it between teeth, other is take the piece in mouth and chew the pulp out and spit out the hard skin. Care must be given while eating mature drumstick as its fibre pieces can be too hard and can hurt gums or soft part of mouth.
This drumstick masala curry
- Is so east to make and is ready in less than 30 mins.
- Great vegan curry! Have it on the side and it will enhance the flavours of the meal significantly.
- Bursting with nutrition, with minimal fat and low calories.
- My recipe is not gluten-free as it contains asafoetida, however for gluten intolerant people, asafoetida can be omitted from the recipe.
Storage and serving suggestion
You can keep this curry under refrigeration for 3 days, it has relatively longer life compared to other normal curries. I have not tried freezing it, and can not comment with certainty if its suitable for home freezing. We love it so much that we end up eating it all and no chance of any leftover to freeze!
Serve this drumstick masala, along with plain steamed rice and dal, as side dish. Make sure that its hot enough for best taste.
Recipe Card
Drumstick Masala
Equipment
- Wide Mouth Pan/ Kadai
Ingredients
- 10 Drumsticks Fresh
- 1 Onion Medium Size
- 1 Tsp Ginger Grated
- 1/3 Tsp Asafoetida
- 1/2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 Tsp Salt As per taste
- 1/3 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Dry Mango Powder / Amchur
- 1 Tsp Garam Masala Powder
- 1 Tbsp Oil
Instructions
- First of all, Peel, rinse and chop the drumsticks into 3-4 inch pieces.
- Take a Pan/Kadhai and put oil into it and keep it on medium flame. When oil is warm, add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add chopped onion and saute till its pinkish brown in colour.
- Then add chopped green chillies and grated ginger and saute again for few seconds. Now add all the spices except garam masala and roast for a minute.
- Add chopped drumsticks and mix well. Now add 4 tablespoon of water to it. Cover the pan with lid and keep the flame to low.
- Cook it for 10-12 minutes until they are tender and well cooked.
- Open the lid and roast for 1 more minute. Add garam masala and switch off the flame.
- Masala Drumstick is ready. Serve Hot and enjoy with rice and dal of your choice as a side dish.
Notes
- You can adjust spice level as per your taste.
- You can also add tomatoes to it. Chop 2 medium sized tomatoes and add to the mixture after roasting all the spices. Once tomatoes are soft and mushy then add chopped drumsticks and cook as given in recipe.
- Don’t add too much water while cooking drumstick and don’t overcook them otherwise they will be too mushy.