Drumstick (Sohanjna) Pods and Phool: Picking, Storing, Freezing

Forget the powder for a minute. Sohanjna (drumstick, moringa) is first a vegetable: long green pods (phalian) that go into sambar and sohanjna gosht, and a short spring crop of white flowers (phool) that Punjabi homes cook as a sabzi. Pick pods that are slim and snap cleanly, and to store drumstick for longer, cut, blanch and freeze it. Below: picking, cooking, how to actually eat the pulp, storage, and the one real safety line about the root and bark.

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Sohanjna season: when to find phool and phalian

The tree flowers first. From about February, sprays of creamy white flowers open on sohanjna trees across Punjab, Sindh and much of north India, and for a few weeks you’ll see them sold loose in plastic bags at the sabzi mandi or picked off a neighbour’s tree over the wall, before the pods take over and hang in long green strands from spring into early summer.

In Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra, trees fruit for much more of the year, which is why drumstick is an everyday sambar vegetable there rather than a seasonal event, and frozen pods fill the gap in supermarkets elsewhere. They’re fine for curries.

How to pick good drumsticks at the market

1. Thickness. Choose pods about as thick as your little finger or a pencil and a half. Very thick pods are older and more fibrous.
2. Surface. Smooth, with gentle ridges. If you can see each seed as a lump bulging under the skin, the pod is mature and woody.
3. Colour. Even, bright or deep green. Yellowing, brown patches or dry, pale ends mean age.
4. The snap test. Bend the thin end. A tender pod feels firm and snaps; an old one bends like rubber or is already stiff and hollow.
5. Length. Barely matters. Slim beats fat.
6. For phool: pick bunches with lots of closed buds and fresh white flowers. Brown, dropping petals mean they were picked days ago.

Why is my drumstick bitter or stringy? Usually because it was over-mature. Some trees also give sharper pods than others. It’s not a toxin warning like a bitter lauki, but there’s no point eating a woody pod; the pulp inside will be dry and thin.

How to prepare the pods, and how to eat the pulp

1. Wash under running water.
2. Trim both ends. If the skin is thick, run a peeler or knife lightly along the ridges to take off the toughest strips (optional on young pods).
3. Cut into pieces 6 to 8 cm long, which is the size that fits a spoon, cooks evenly in the time the dal takes and is easy to pick up with your fingers when you get to the eating part.
4. Cook until the flesh is soft: about 8 to 10 minutes simmering in sambar or dal, or 1 whistle in a pressure cooker.

Now the part nobody tells first-timers: you don’t chew the whole piece. Hold it, split it along a seam with your fingers, and scrape the soft green-white pulp and tender seeds off the inside with your teeth or a spoon; the stringy outer skin gets left on the side of your plate, exactly the way you’d eat an artichoke leaf, and if the skin won’t split and the pulp is thin, the pod was too old.

Cleaning the phool (flowers)

Pick out stalks and leaves, then wash the flowers gently in two changes of water in a large bowl, lifting them out each time so the grit stays behind on the bottom, and boil them for 3 to 5 minutes in salted water before draining and squeezing, because raw flowers are bitter. They shrink a lot. Buy extra.

Recipes: sambar, sohanjna gosht and phool ki sabzi

Drumstick dal or quick sambar (serves 4)

1. Pressure cook 1 cup toor or masoor dal with 3 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and salt.
2. Separately simmer 3 pods (cut into pieces), 1 chopped onion and 1 tomato in 1 cup water with a lemon-sized ball of tamarind soaked and squeezed, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons sambar powder and the cooked dal. Simmer 5 minutes.
4. Temper 1 tablespoon oil with 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, a few curry leaves and 2 dry red chillies. Pour over.

Sohanjna gosht (Punjabi style)

Cook 500 g mutton with 2 fried onions, 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste, 2 tomatoes and your usual masala until tender. Add 4 pods cut into pieces, or 250 g boiled, squeezed flowers, with a splash of water, and cook 10 to 15 minutes more. With flowers it’s closer to a dry bhuna; with pods, keep a little shorba.

Sohanjne ke phool ki sabzi (serves 3)

Fry 1 sliced onion in 3 tablespoons oil, add 3 crushed garlic cloves, salt, 1/2 teaspoon chilli and a pinch of turmeric, then 300 g boiled and squeezed flowers. Cook 5 minutes. Stir in 3 tablespoons whisked yoghurt off the heat, or add a boiled diced potato for body.

Combos that work: pods with lentils is the classic pairing because the dal carries the protein and the drumstick brings flavour and fibre; flowers with yoghurt or potato soften their bitterness. There’s no real “don’t combine” rule with sohanjna.

How to store drumstick in the fridge and freezer

• Whole pods, fridge: don’t wash first. Wrap in newspaper or a cotton cloth, slip into a loose bag, and keep in the vegetable drawer. They stay usable for about a week, then start to go limp and dry at the ends.
• Cut pieces, fridge: 2 to 3 days in a closed box.
• Freezer (the long-term answer): cut into 6 to 8 cm pieces, blanch 2 to 3 minutes in boiling water, cool in cold water, dry on a cloth and freeze flat in bags. Add them straight from frozen to sambar or curry. Best within about 6 months.
• Flowers: they wilt within a day or two. Boil and squeeze them, then freeze in portions for up to a few months.
• Limp pods: fine for sambar. Slimy ones aren’t.

Frozen pods are softer after thawing, so they suit curries rather than dry dishes. For other freezing ideas see freezing peas and greens.

Drumstick benefits, without the “miracle tree” hype

The pods are a good everyday vegetable. Fibre, some vitamin C, a mild asparagus-like flavour. The leaves are where moringa’s big nutrient numbers come from, and if that’s what you’ve read about, our sohanjna leaves and powder guide and moringa powder for daily food cover them properly.

Can diabetics eat drumsticks? Yes: the pods are low in carbohydrate and in sambar they sit next to dal, which suits a diabetic plate too, though drumstick won’t bring your sugar down by itself, so medicines and portions stay exactly as your doctor set them. People with high uric acid, BP or thyroid conditions can eat the pods as a normal vegetable. That’s all it is.

Surprising facts about the sohanjna tree

• The tree is native to the sub-Himalayan foothills of north India and Pakistan, and it grows fast enough to reach several metres within a year or two.
• It’s called the “horseradish tree” because the root tastes sharp like horseradish. That doesn’t make the root safe to eat (see below).
• The English name “drumstick” simply comes from the long pod’s shape.

Pregnancy and who should be careful

More seasonal vegetable guides are in our Fruits and Vegetables section.

Sohanjna and drumstick questions