People ask me all the time what to do with moringa. They buy a bag at the market or off the website, get it home, and stand in the kitchen wondering what comes next. Fair enough. Nothing else in a Southern kitchen looks quite like it.

So here's the honest version, and mine might surprise you. I'm a leaf cook, not a powder person.

I cook with the leaves

Fresh off the tree when Greg is harvesting, dried the rest of the year. In a stir fry the leaves go in like any tender green, and dried leaves crumble right into soups, beans, and eggs. Either way I add them near the end, off the heat, the same way you'd treat a fresh herb. High heat cooks away some of what makes them worth eating.

I don't eat meat, so protein matters at my table, and tofu is where the moringa earns its keep. Stir fried tofu gets the leaves or a little powder cooked through with everything else. Air fried tofu gets the powder mixed into the seasoning before it goes in the basket.

Why I leave the powder to Greg

The powder is the most concentrated form we make, and moringa gives you a lift. For me it's more lift than I want, so I stick with the leaves and let the powder folks have the powder. I'm built sensitive that way. Some medicines and plenty of other herbs do the same thing to me. Greg is the opposite. He takes two capsules midday and says the lift carries him through the afternoon work, and he eats whatever I cook with it besides. Between the two of us, the moringa gets used one way or another.

Our Daily Dash, and popcorn

The other way it lands on our table is Our Daily Dash, the blend we make with moringa, turmeric, and black pepper. It shakes onto cooked food like any seasoning. Vegetables, rice, beans, eggs. And popcorn. Who would have thought. A shake over hot buttered popcorn, the butter holds it on, and it eats green and salty.

Shrek cookies

When there are kids around, moringa goes in the cookie dough. The green stops them for a second, then they're calling them Shrek cookies and asking for more. My moringa chocolate chip cookie recipe is right here on this blog if you want to try it.

In the salad dressing

This one surprises people. A little moringa whisked into olive oil and apple cider vinegar with garlic and salt. Powder or crumbled leaf, whichever fits how I'm cooking that day. It gives the dressing a green, grassy depth and disappears right into the flavor.

Frozen lemon in my tea

I keep fresh lemons in the freezer and microplane a little of the frozen lemon straight into a cup of moringa leaf tea. Zest and fruit together, no juicing, no waste. It brightens the whole cup.

For the little ones

Our grandkids are grown past the age where we could sneak greens on them. But mothers who buy from us tell me the same thing over and over: a spoonful of the powder in a smoothie or stirred into applesauce, and the kids never fuss about it.

Keeping it good

Whatever form you use, keep the bag sealed in a dark cabinet. Light fades the green, and the green is the good part.

Greg is out cutting fresh moringa as I write this, and the dried leaves in the shop right now came off those same trees. If you cook, start with the dried whole leaves, they're what I use. The capsules are Greg's way. The powder suits the smoothie folks and the mothers I mentioned. And if you want to know more about the trees themselves, our moringa page covers it.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.