Malabar Spinach In Curds (Vali Mosru Bajji Recipe)

Malabar Spinach In Curds (Vali Mosru Bajji Recipe)

There are many ways to make nutritious Malabar spinach (Basella) delicious. In most Konkani homes they make vali sasam (Malabar spinach in coconut chutney), vali mosru bajji (Malabar spinach in chutney & curds) & many other Basella dishes. Mom makes this easy peesy side dish without much hassel using Basella that tastes delicious & is also quick to make. Here's its recipe.

What you see in the pic above from left are:

Pan fried raw bananas - simplest recipe for kele phodi

Malabar Spinach In Curds (Vali Mosru Bajji Recipe) recipe here.

Malabar Spinach In Spicy, Tangy Coconut Chutney And Curds Gravy (Vali Mosuru Bajji)


Ingredients:

  • 1 big bunch of Malabar spinach/Basella leaves that makes 4 cups of finely chopped malabar spinach that will reduce to 1-1.5 cups of Basella on cooking.
  • 3/4 cup curds
  • Salt to taste

For seasoning:

  • 1.5 tablespoons of oil
  • 1 dried red chilli
  • 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
  • 1 leaflet of curry leaves
  • 1 teaspoon cumin powder
  • 1 teaspoon pepper powder

Serves: 2-3

Total preparation time: 40 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Course: Side dish


Method of preparation:

1. Wash and finely chop leaves of Malabar spinach.

You can use tender most stems of Malabar Spinach. How do you know if stems are tender? Snap them, if they break they are tender. Use them in this dish.

2. Add chopped spinach into a pressure, add 1/2 cup water, salt and cook closed for 1 whistle. 

  • You need not add excess water as spinach gives out water while cooking.
  • It is important to add salt in this step, so that spinach takes up salt while its cooking. Or else spinach tastes bland.
  • You can alternatively cook it on flame in a cooking vessel until it cooks through too.

3. Let cooked spinach cool down. Once it has cooled down, add cooked spinach to curds without the stock used to cook it.

4. Check & adjust salt. Add stock if needed. We want it to be considerably thick in consistency and not watery.

5. Seasoning: Heat oil in a tempering pan, add in mustard seeds. When they start popping, add in curry leaves and dried red chilli broken into pieces, pepper powder, cumin powder. Add this tempering to the spinach curds mixture and mix well. 

6. Serve it with rice & enjoy.


P.S: My mom also grinds little grated coconut sometimes to the spinach curds mixture. But it tastes great without the grated coconut too. 

P.P.S: Mom also does this: Season in a frying pan, add chopped spinach to the seasoning, cook it closed without adding any water on medium flame. Water given out by leaves is enough to cook them through. Cool it, transfer it to curds & enjoy with rice or as a side dish.


 Basella are also known as Malabar spinach in India and is called 'vali' in Konkani. We prepare a lot of Basella dishes in Konkani cuisine. Some of them are:

Malabar Spinach Masala (Vali Sukke)

Malabar Spinach Coconut Curry (Vali Randayi)

Malabar Spinach Tambli (Vali Tambali/Thambali) 

Malabar Spinach Stir Fry (Vali Upakari)

Malabar Spinach In Spicy, Tangy Coconut Chutney And Curds Gravy (Vali Mosuru Bajji)

Malabar Spinach In Coconut Chutney (Vali Sasam)

We also make spicy fritters (called ambado in Konkani) and spicy dosas (called as sanna polo in Konkani) for lunch, dinner using basella.

Find more Konkani cuisine side dishes here