During our visit to a friend’s farm in Kerala, we saw this cactus like plant growing wild in a corner. Our friend told us that a lot of local people come and take twigs of the plant, which is supposed to be highly medicinal. The medicinal value, he was not aware of. My husband took a twig and planted it in our back yard.

 

Then he contacted an Ayurveda group and was astonished to know what a treasure this plant was. It is known as bone setter or edible-stemmed vine. It has many names: Vajravalli, Hadjod, Mangaravalli, Asthisrinkhala, and Vajralatha. It resembles the shape of bones and joints in the body, and is indeed very effective in strengthening the bones and joints.

 

I was curious how it was consumed and a net search gave me the recipe for hadjod chutney here: http://samagni.com/2015/06/pirandai-thogayal-adamant-creeper-chutney/comment-page-1/

 

I added coconut scrapings as in Kerala, we like to have coconut in our chutneys.

 

Ingredients:

 

While chopping the hadjot plant, you have to take some precautions or you will get itching on your hands. Smear oil on your palms and fingers nicely. Remove all the joints from the plant, as also the ridges. The leaves are used. Wash and chop them into small pieces.

2 tbsps of chopped hadjod

2 dried red chillies broken to small pieces

¼ cup Udad dal

2 tbsps black sesame seeds

¾ cup grated coconut

Salt to taste

A pinch of Asafetida

A small ball of Tamarind. This neutralizes the itchiness of hadjod

2 tbsps Sesame oil

 

Instructions:

 

• Pour some oil in a thick bottomed pan and roast the broken chilli pieces. Transfer to a plate.
• Add the udad dal and sesame seeds to the pan and roast till the color of udad dal changes and aroma comes.
• Now roast the coconut and asafetida, till the coconut turns light brown in color.
• Lastly, roast the hadjod till they shrink and change to light brown in color.
• Let everything  cool a bit.

• Grind all the ingredients with salt and tamarind to a powder.
• It can be eaten with steamed rice as it is, or made into thin chutney by adding water and served with dosa or idli.