Drumstick pod
Moringa oleifera · Vegetable
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The drumstick pod is the long, slender immature fruit of the moringa tree (Moringa oleifera), a fast-growing tropical tree native to the foothills of the Himalayas in north-western India. Cooked while young and green, the ribbed pod is a staple of South Indian and Sri Lankan cooking — most famously in sambar and drumstick curry — where the soft inner pulp and seeds are scraped from the fibrous skin.
Picking a good onedrag
Slender, green, snaps cleanWoody, seedy, drying brown
Shop greenEveryday bestThe sambar pod: parboil, then curry. Draw each piece through the teeth for pulp and seeds and discard the skin — fibre, not poison.
Skin and seed bumpsGreen, seed bumps showing down the ribs
The bendSnaps, but the break shows strings
Cut endCut face drying, pulp still white
Smell at the cutGreen and neutral, almost nothing
What you get from one
52%
Edible part
pulp and seeds · USDA refuse 48%, the hard outer covering and fibers