Black Eyed Beans Curry, Free From Onion, Garlic
Lobhia Masaledar, Bina Pyaz ka
Mamta Gupta
This is a really easy dish to make, if you make it without Onion, garlic, but has tomatoes. If you want to make it without tomatoes, add yoghurt instead, to give it slight tartness.
To make it quickly, you can used tinned beans, bypassing the need to pressure cook.
If you are not able to stock a lot of Indian spices, use curry powder in place of turmeric, coriander, chilli, garam masala. It will not be as good as the original, but will be okay.
Serves 4
Edited December 2023
Ingredients
2 cups black eyed beans (lobhia or lobia) . If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can use tinned, preb0iled beans
2-3 tbsp. cooking oil of your choice
1 tsp. cumin seeds (you can add a couple of brown/green cardamoms, a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf, a few cloves and black peppercorns here, as in pictures)
A large pinch of asafoetida powder or hing
1 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated or finely chopped*
1/2 cup tinned tomatoes (picture 4 &5) or 1/2 cup of thick, full cream milk yogurt (picture 6) at room temperature. Skimmed milk yoghurt and chilled yoghurt are more likely to split.
1 level tsp. turmeric powder
1/2 tsp. chilli powder (adjust to taste)
2 tsp. coriander powder
1 level tsp. Garam Masala powder
Salt to taste
A handful of chopped coriander leaves to garnish (optional)
Instructions
Wash and soak the beans for a couple of hours in hand warm water.
Heat the oil in a pan.
Add cumin seeds and asafoetida powder.
When seeds splutter or begin to turn brown, add all the spices and tomatoes or yoghurt, picture 5.
Turn the heat down to avoid burning the spices. Stir quickly for 10-20 seconds or so, picture.
Continue frying on low-medium heat, until the oil separates clearly. This usually takes 4-5 minutes only, unless your tomatoes/yoghurt are watery.
Add the beans and 1 1/2 cup of water. Stir in.
Bring to boil, Cook under pressure (in a pressure cooker) for 10 minutes or so.
Cool and open pressure cooker. Adjust salt/chillies.
If there is little sauce left, add a cup or two of hot water and boil for 5 minutes.
Add half the coriander leaves and mix. (I serve leaves on the side, because some family members are allergic to it.
Serve hot, garnished with remaining coriander leaves, with fresh Chapatties or Tandoori Roties or Plain Parathas.
Lobhia/Black Eyed Bean Soup:
