Materia Medica: Moringa

One week after I went live, here's the blog post! Moringa, the tree of life, miracle tree, drumstick tree, horseradish tree, Latin name Moringa Ovalifolia. Native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas, the various names for this nutrient rich and nutritive plant ally already tells us so much. 

Every part of this plant is edible, the roots, the immature seed pods when young, tender, and green, the seeds can be cold pressed into an edible oil, the flowers can be sprinkled on salads or tinctured in apple cider vinegar to make a delicious salad dressing and, of course, the part I use the most, the leaves. 

This plant is available year round if you're growing it. In fact in can grow up to 10 feet in less than a year, so I'm often cutting the Moringa trees back in my garden to keep them shorter than 7 feet. This plant loves getting haircuts, which is what I refer to when talking about cutting back a plant. 

If you grow this plant, and you should, you will be growing all the nutrients // supplements you could // would ever get from a supplement. Moringa leaves have seven times the vitamin C of oranges, four times the calcium of milk, four times the vitamin A of carrots, three times the potassium of bananas & two times the protein of yogurt. It's also a significant source of B vitamins, vitamin K & manganese. 

I love to dehydrate the leaves and powder them to sprinkle on food or make a salty snack more nutritious like green popcorn, you can see my latest blend with moringa which I call a Green Salt here. 

Or you can play around with making sweet treats and incorporating Moringa powder in them. I've had a many Morgina cookies and brownies. You can also incorporate the fresh leaves into cooking for a nice spicy salty green flavor and in pestos and hummus. 

Edible Leaves of the Tropics and Forager: A Subjective Guide to Miami's Edible Leaves. 

Green Blessings, 

Jules