Rajma Masala

It’s the season of one pot meals and simple fare. Curried kidney beans or Rajma Masala is another treasure from the Indian kitchen. Nutritious and tasty.

From chillies, curries to stews and salads, make the most of legumes – pantry favourites – during this season.

Soak 500 gm kidney beans overnight in water.

The next morning, pressure cook the beans in 5 cups of water until they are soft – 5-6 whistles usually. Set aside.

Warm 2 tbs oil or ghee in a pot. Add 2 tsp cumin seeds. Add 1 small cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, 1 black cardamom (or 2 cardamoms) Add 1 finely chopped onion and 2 chopped green chillies and salt. Sauté.

Add 2 tsp ginger garlic paste. Sauté.

Add 1 tsp coriander powder, ½ tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (or paprika) and 1/2 tsp amchur powder (optional – this is dry mango powder, which makes the dish more sour, so we tend to avoid it, as we already have tomatoes in the gravy)

Add a dash of water, so the spice paste does not stick to the pot and cook on low flame for a couple of minutes.

Add 2 cups of finely chopped tomatoes (or pureed tomatoes) and cook on medium flame until oil oozes out of the spice paste.

Add the beans along with the water in which it was cooked. You could mash some of the beans if you want a thicker curry.

Sprinkle 1/2 tsp garam masala on top. Stir well and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 1 tbs chopped cilantro and 1 tsp dried fenugreek (kasuri methi) leaves. Stir well.

Add few dollops of ghee to the pot – it brings out the flavour.

Serve with white rice, jeera rice, naan or rotis.

By Christ & Co.