Ready-to-cook greens and keerai dips are Chennaiites’ new favourites

Sriram Prasad G, the founder of Keerai Kadai, says that their soup in a dip is the first of its kind that comes in filter bags, similar to green tea. “This is the first time soup dips are developed in the country. We were getting calls from abroad asking to export our keerai varieties. Since keerai is perishable, we cannot export it. We thought of coming up with an innovative product and that’s how soup dips were launched. The product is similar to green tea bags; instead of tea leaves, the filter bag contains different types of keerais. You can just dip it in hot water and drink at any time. We have six flavours – moringa turmeric dip, mudakathan dip, vallarai dip, thoodhuvala dip, ashwagandha dip and moringa dip.”

Sriram notices that after the pandemic, people are more careful about their food habits. “Now, staying fit and healthy is a daily chase for many of us. We don’t dry these leaves in the sun because the nutrients will be lost. We have a separate drying unit for that. As you know, each leaf has different nutritional properties. Moringa is rich in calcium, iron and proteins. Mudakathan keerai has strong anti-inflammatory properties. This green is good for joint pain and swelling in the joints. Vallarai is rich in anti-oxidants and regulates blood sugar level,” he explains.

Nallakeerai, another start-up, has come up with ready-to-cook organic greens. R Jagannathan of Nallakeerai says that this product will come in handy for people who don’t have time to sit and clean keerai. “We started this ready-to-cook format only after the lockdown. Some people don’t buy keerai saying that it is a tedious process to clean it. But this product saves a lot of time. All keerais are cleaned, sorted and packed in banana leaves,” says Jagannathan.