12 radish (mooli) dishes to keep you warm during winters

Mooli or radish is a quintessential winter vegetable, known for its sharp flavour, and digestive benefits. Rich in fibre, vitamin C, and antioxidants, mooli helps keep the body warm and supports immunity during colder months. The best part is that mooli and its tender leaves both are full of flavour and benefits and can be tweaked into dishes that fit for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. In Ayurveda, mooli is considered a warming and digestive root, making it ideal for consumption in winter months. As per principles of Ayurveda, mooli keeps the body warm, balances Kapha, supports respiratory health, and improves metabolism. Here are twelve mooli dishes that you can try to keep warm during winter months.

This is one of the most popular mooli dishes, where grated mooli mixed with spices is stuffed in whole wheat flour dough and rolled out into parathas and then cooked on a griddle. It is best enjoyed with curd and pickles.

This dish goes well with steamed rice and pickle and to make it you need to cook mooli along with toor dal in a cooker and add a tempering of onion and tomato to it.

This is a popular side dish, best enjoyed with rice and dal or roti. To make it, you need tender mooli leaves, garlic, potatoes, mustard oil, garlic and spices.

To make this, simply add grated mooli to regular thepla dough, roll out, and cook a greased griddle. Enjoy with chai and pickles.

It is a seasonal dish, where mooli chunks are soaked in hot mustard oil along with spices like fenugreek, mustard, red chilli powder, fennel powder, hing, and salt. Filled in a jar and kept under the sun for a couple of days and it's ready. It goes well with paratha, rice and dal and even pakodas. One can also make a grated version of this, where you grate the radish, squeeze out all the excess water and then add the spices and your pickle is ready.

To make this, grate mooli and finely chop the leaves and blanch in salt water for 2 minutes and then add to besan batter seasoned with spices and sooji. Deep fry and enjoy with chutney and chai.

This is an immunity-boosting treat, where you make the regular sambar with toor dal, sambar masala, curry leaves, onion, mustard seeds and tamarind puree and also add chunks of mooli while cooking to add a pop of white with lots of nutrition.

To make this soup, simply saute onion and mooli in a tempering of butter and oil along with some garlic. Add veg stock, salt, pepper, and corn flour slurry. Bring it to a boil and your soup is ready.

This is a healthy twist to the classic, where the regular pyaz pakora is replaced with mooli ki pakodi and one can also make the pakodi with leaves and add to regular kadhi made with besan, curd, and panch phoran.

This one is made with tender mooli leaves cooked in a tempering of ghee, green chillies, and garlic along with some chunks of mooli. Cooked in its own moisture, it is seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, and turmeric. It goes well with steamed rice.

This is a Kashmiri delight, where you grate mooli and mix with crushed walnuts in a mortar and pestle along with green chillies. Combine them all with curd and season salt. Enjoy with roti or rice.

It is a soothing South Indian drink, where tomatoes and mooli are cooked together in stock and then it is topped with rasam masala and a tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried red chillies. It is best enjoyed with papad.

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