When hunger strikes, nothing quite comes to the rescue like a tin of beans tossed in a few carefully chosen spices.
Moreish and buttery smooth Lobia Masala, curried black eyed beans, is an all-time favourite and cooked in less than 30 minutes. I remember this well from holidays in Delhi in my youth, and it was always served with soft, hand rolled rotis, and scrunch-your-face-up tangy lime pickle.
My recipe, of course, uses a tin of beans. Adjust the spices to your preference and tuck them into toasted pitta bread pockets instead of roti if you prefer, for a bean stew with a difference.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 1 large onion
- 1 large tomato
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 dry whole red chillies
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 x 400g tin of black eyed beans
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 2 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 large bay leaf
- Salt, to taste
- Julienned ginger, to serve
Method
Rinse and drain the beans. Finely chop the onion and tomato, and finely mince the ginger and garlic. In a sauté pan, bring the oil to heat of high.
When it sizzles around a wooden spoon, drop in the red chillies, bay leaf and cinnamon. As they sizzle up, stir in the chopped onion. Sauté this for five minutes, and add the ginger and garlic pastes.
Stir the whole lot well for another five minutes until they turn golden. Now, add in the tomatoes, tomato puree and ground coriander, and mix it all well together. Then add half a cup of hot water and bubble the whole lot for about 10 minutes until you get a cooked masala mixture. You can stab the onions and tomatoes to make sure they disintegrate well and give you a pulpy texture.
After that, lower the heat to a simmer, cover for about a minute and cook until oil starts oozing out of the paste. Now, add the beans and garam masala, stir through gently and simmer covered for another couple of minutes. Finally, add salt to your taste and serve the Lobia Masala hot, with julienned ginger on top.
Mallika Basu is an Indian food writer and columnist. Her new cook book, Masala: Indian Cooking for Modern Living is available here. See her recipes here and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MallikaBasu_.
