Gayani Jayathilake

So we were back in tropical heaven, Sri Lanka, on vacation. Our first week here we were blessed to be able to try out various Kola kenda recipes. Green smoothies, a super healthy and energy boosting drink, enriched with herbs. Sri Lanka has an abundance of these culinary, medicinally valued ingredients. So, I figured I just had to share these experiences with my fellow blog readers.

This herbal gruel famously known as Kola Kenda is a reviving drink that is best served as a breakfast drink. Our first Kola kenda consisted of just Karapincha. (Murraya koenigii), or widely known as curry leaves.  Then the next day we made the same recipe but add in an extra herb called Kovakka (Coccinia grandis).  The next day we add to that, Kohila (Lasia Spinosa). We also tried a totally different Kola kenda recipe with the herb Iramusu (Hemidesmus indicus).

My husband and I were no experts of course. But we tried with help and supervision by those who knew better. It was ofcourse best to get tips from locals on the best green leaf combinations. Those that went well together, those that benefited when put together. And those that did not go well together, and did more ill than benefit when combined. Let me unfold to you the way we made it. Also we made sure we did everything the traditional way right from the beginning. Right from picking the coconut, removing the outer skin and husk, splitting the coconut shell and scraping the white coconut flesh out, picking out herbs and plucking them, lighting a fire to make a hearth to cooking it outdoors in a claypot.

First we selected a nice fresh coconut.

We peeled off the outer skin and the husk using a machete like tool. Hard work that was.

Karapincha. (Murraya koenigii) or better known as curry leaves.

Kovakka (Coccinia grandis)

Kohila (Lasia Spinosa) We decided to use the leaves, stalk and root as it is edible.

Scraping the coconut

After the ingredients were ready, we add in the leaves and scraped coconut into a food processor. We also add in a tad bit of water and mixed and pureed it into a pulp.

Next we strained out the liquid from the mixture, into a bowl.

We used our hand to strain out the last ounce of liquid from the leaves and coconut. We were left with these dry remnants as seen in the picture above.

Next we pulled out some red rice. Specifically, red kekulu rice and washed it.

Next we started heating the rice in a pan with about two cups of water. We also added in a pinch of salt and one or two cloves garlic. We cooked until the rice was cooked. And yes, we felt lazy to light a fire outside on the first day so we used the cooker. But I promise from day 2 onwards we lit a fire outside and cooked outside. 😉

Proof. 😉

Next we mixed in the green extract from the leaves and coconut milk with the cooked rice and set to boil. When it started to boil we removed the pan from the fire. We made sure we did not overcook so we lost the nutrients.

Voila! The heavenly green kola kenda. 🙂

Herbal values of the above herbs can be found in this site :

http://herbalplantslanka.blogspot.de/