Maanga parippu curry – Kerala moringa mango dal

Maanga parippu curry is a tangy Kerala curry with soft-cooked dal flavoured with sour raw mangoes and finished with fresh moringa leaves. This mango dal is a must-try recipe served with steamed rice.
Currently, all my social media feeds are filled with mango recipes, mango reels and all the yummy goodness of mangoes. This started ever since we moved to the Southern hemisphere. Since the seasons are opposite,  you just have to wait a while for some gorgeous mangoes to pop up.
While that wait happens,  my husband brings home one perfect raw mango and a bunch of moringa leaves from the Indian store. I can describe the happiness in words while opening the brown paper bag it was wrapped in. This man knows how to make me happy ( he figured out the single mango just does the trick well). Though I have tons of mango recipes to try this one mango need to bring comfort to the recovering tastebuds. The first thought was dal, rice and mango pickle. Nah!! Shelve that!! Let’s put the mango in the dal and make mangayum parippum. That will take care of the fresh moringa leaves too. So, on the menu today is maanga parippu curry with plenty of moringa leaves.

Let’s gather the ingredients for this mango dal

The Kerala style parippu curry or dal recipes have easily available local ingredients added to them. In this recipe, Mango and the moringa leaves are the key ingredients. You have to try it for sure to see how well they all pair together making this simple dish the best comfort in the world. 

Dal or lentils– the main ingredient for this dish is the dal or split lentils. Most Kerala dishes use either split pigeon pea or split mung bean to make the yellow dal. I have used split mung bean here to make this dal. you can use the peeled yellow cotyledons to make shiny yellow dal. You can also use the one where the mung bean is just split into two parts. the skin gives extra fibre and bit to the dal. You can use split peas dal to make this dal too as we have done in the spinach dal we made earlier. 
Raw Mango- the tangy raw mango cooked to softness in the dal just makes you want another helping of rice for the day. A lot of the tanginess gets into the dal and the cooking liquid, leaving the soft pulpy mango to bite on. 
Moringa leaves – Though a pain to clean the moringa leaves are a great addition to this dal. Since they are locally available in Kerala, they often flavour a lot of dishes along with curry leaves. The leaves are a superfood. Apart from the traditional used, I love them for the fragrance and the crispness they have. Since it is a rarity for us, I use it in every possible way when I get some (Try our moringa rice pakoras).
The spices- since the dal is a gentle dish, there aren’t much of spices or masalas that go into this recipe. It tastes awesome with just the turmeric and salt cooked in.
The final garnish – the final addition is the tempering with a few spices in coconut oil and pouring this sizzling mix on the hot cooked dal. I love the way the curry leaves fry up along with the red chillies flavouring the oil. Pour this over the simmering dal and allow the flavours to infuse. That does so much of a difference to the simple maanga parippu curry. 

The recipe card here has the details of ingredients, quantity and step by step instructions to make this raw mango dal. Let us know how your dal turns out or if you make a change with this recipe as its base.

Serving this mango dal

Maanga parippu curry with moringa leaves tastes wonderful with steamed matta rice and a side of kaipakka mezhukkuperatti. Add a roasted papadam and your meal. The raw mango dal pairs well with simple masala paratha or with cabbage parathas. Sometimes I love the leftover dal, just to have as a soup, a side of focaccia will be nice with it.

Collaborations   

The Shh cooking secretly group has been a constant inspiration to whip up great delights. It is the partnership with people that I love here, the passion for good food and great insights into regional cuisines. This time had two great bloggers as partners. Aruna gave me the two ingredients – Turmeric and mustard to cook this parippu curry with. She has in turn made the most delicious mango mustard rice. My second partner is Mayuri Patel who has created a yogurt-based mango curry. Now that you have three mango dishes to try instead of one, let us know how we three did? 

Stay connected

I hope this mango dal idea and some of our other Kerala recipes come in handy for you. Once you are happy with this manga parippu curry,  blame me!! If you like these recipes or our travel post, don’t forget to let us know. Here are the links to our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. More than anything,  subscribe to this blog newsletter so we can update you regularly (not every day!).