Moringa: The Winter Superfood for National Fruitcake Month

December is National Fruitcake Month. Rather than defend the fruitcake, we would like to propose an improvement to it — and make the case for the leaf we would put in it.

In defense of the indefensible

Fruitcake has been the punchline of the American holiday table for decades. Johnny Carson got most of the mileage out of it, with a running joke that there is really only one fruitcake in the world and it simply gets passed from household to household. Manitou Springs, Colorado has held a Great Fruitcake Toss since 1995, in which people launch unwanted cakes with slingshots and, on at least one occasion, a pneumatic cannon.

All of which is deserved, and none of which is the cake's fault. The problem with most commercial fruitcake is not the concept — dried fruit, nuts, spice and a dense crumb is a genuinely good idea, and versions of it exist happily as panforte, stollen and black cake. The problem is candied peel dyed in colors not found in nature, and a batter dry enough to require the brandy rather than merely enjoy it.

Both are fixable. One of the fixes involves a green leaf, which is where we come in.

What moringa actually is

Moringa oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-tolerant tree native to the sub-Himalayan foothills of northwest India, now cultivated across the tropics. It has been eaten as a leafy green for a very long time, and it is the leaf we use — dried whole for tea, milled fine for powder.

What is genuinely notable about it, stated without embellishment: dried moringa leaf is a concentrated leafy green carrying plant protein with all nine essential amino acids — unusual in a leaf — along with dietary fiber, calcium, potassium, iron, vitamin C and beta-carotene, the precursor the body converts to vitamin A. Published figures vary with harvest, climate and drying method, so read any single number as an estimate rather than a promise.

That is the whole claim. Moringa is a nutrient-dense food, worth having in the kitchen in a month when the fresh vegetable options thin out and everything on the table is beige. It is not a shield against winter colds, and we are not going to tell you it is.

What it tastes like, which matters more than any of the above

Green and grassy with a faint peppery finish, closer to arugula or watercress than to matcha. Moringa is in the same botanical order as mustard and cress, which is exactly why. It is not bitter unless you overheat it — the single rule worth remembering is add it off the heat.

Against warm baking spice — cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom — that peppery green note is not a compromise. It is a counterweight, and it is the thing most holiday baking is missing.

The improved fruitcake

Two changes, both small.

First, soak the fruit in tea. Steeping dried fruit in strong brewed tea overnight is a classic baker's technique and it does more for the finished crumb than alcohol does — the fruit plumps, and the tannin cuts the sweetness. Brew four bags of Original moringa tea in two cups of water just off the boil, five minutes, then pour it hot over 500 g of mixed dried fruit — sultanas, currants, chopped apricot, dried cherries — and leave it covered overnight. Use good dried fruit and skip the candied peel entirely.

Second, put a teaspoon of moringa powder in the batter. One teaspoon in a standard loaf, sifted in with the flour. You will not see it against the dark fruit and you will not identify it in the flavor, but the peppery green note lands underneath the spice and stops the whole thing reading as flatly sweet. Two teaspoons is too much; it starts to taste of greens.

Three easier ways in

If you are not baking a fruitcake this December — which is a defensible position — the leaf is still worth a jar.

• In porridge. Two teaspoons stirred into oatmeal after it comes off the heat, with a pinch of salt and something acidic like dried berries.
• In a winter soup. Whisk a teaspoon into lentil or squash soup after ladling, never in the pot. It behaves like a finishing herb.
• As tea, at four in the afternoon. One bag, water just off the boil at around 200°F, three to five minutes. Caffeine free across the herbal range, with the exception of the Green Tea and Earl Grey blends. Mild, faintly sweet, green-gold in the cup. Ginger and Pumpkin Spice both suit December particularly well.

Where ours comes from

USDA Certified Organic, sustainably sourced from Sri Lanka, packed in plastic-free biodegradable tea bags, and dried, milled and packed in a facility certified to GMP and ISO 22000 standards. Moringa yields several harvests a year on land where a great many crops would not establish at all, which is a large part of why we built an entire pantry around one leaf.

Enjoy the fruitcake. Or at least improve it, and pass it on.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult a licensed healthcare professional before starting any new supplement or dietary program.