Drumstick Foogath is a vegetable dish cooked with onions, chillies and this is then garnished with pepper powder and grated coconut.

East Indians make foogath of various vegetables likewise we love our beans foogath, cabbage foogath, cluster beans foogath, and so on. Foogath is very mild on spices, basically it has only chillies and pepper powder

Drumstick is a staple vegetable in India and easily available throughout the year. Moreover, it is considered a super-food these days and said to have many health benefits. Drumstick is also known as Moringa and the entire plant has medicinal properties. You must specifically include this vegetable in your diet.

Besides being highly nutritious Drumstick Foogath is also a delicious vegetable preparation and makes a wonderful side-dish for chapathi. Generally, in India, we use drumsticks in curry preparations but we also love to have it as a dry vegetable.

Foogath is basically a Portuguese term Refogar which means to saute. Any vegetable dish sauteed with onion and also slow-cooked is Foogath. This is very mild on spices, actually, we spice it up with only pepper.

On the whole, East Indians have very limited vegetable dishes and Foogath is one such dish. This vegetable dish is a must-have on an East Indian Dining Table as well as on festive occasions. We generally make Foogath for an evening meal and have it with chapatis or rice along with some side dish.

Even on the days, when we have fish curry, a vegetable Foogath is a must as a side dish.

I can still picture the big Drumstick tree, at my grandmother’s massive house at Bandra. This tree always had tender, juicy drumsticks and we were blessed to have drumsticks throughout the year. We were fortunate to have this vegetable, in it’s purest form, grown freely and organically, during our growing up years. This tree still nestles amongst the tall towers in Sherly, Rajan a small village (as it was in those days) in Bandra.

Drumstick Foogath Recipe

You will need tender drumsticks. Peel the hard outer green skin and cut the drumsticks into 3 – 4 pieces.
In a pan, heat oil and saute onions and chillies. Put in the drumsticks and salt and cook covered till done. Add very little water and let the drumsticks cook in its steam.
Later, sprinkle pepper and coconut and cook further for 2 more minutes.