Subzi: Chawli Beans & Potato Subzi

I know I have been away from active blogging for a while. But I have a valid excuse; I have been experimenting with altering food eating styles over the last few weeks and have been chronicling the results I have noticed. Which has kept me away from the usual rants I let loose on this blog But my experiments are over, they have been deemed successful and have now become a part of my everyday. This means that I have managed to free up some energy to chronicle my recipes and adaptations.

One such recipe that I came up with is the Chawli Beans and Potato Subzi. We eat it with rice and we love how it tastes; rustic, earthy and quick to put together. Chawli is protein packed and has a lovely flavour. It is also a bean that it not cooked in my family. Or even in the man's family. But I have been interested in the stringy looking beans for a while now, and am very fond of lobia (the dried chawli seed legume) and also red and green amaranth leaves (chawli leafies, yes!). So it was only a matter of time before I got the beans home. Light green in colour, and tough to break, they take a bit longer to cook than French green beans. This recipe is also festive friendly, which means it's free from onion and garlic. So yes, leap right into it!

Name: Chawli Beans & Potato Subzi

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Recipe Source: Improvised from Tarla Dalal's Chawli Batata Nu Shaak

Serves: 2

You need:

20-30 chawli (cowpea) green beans, washed, chopped into 1/2 inch sticks

1 big potato, peeled & cubed

1 tomato, blanched, chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp carom / ajwain seeds

1/2 ts asafoetida / hing

1 tsp red chilli / lal mirch powder

1/2 tsp haldi/ turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander / dhania powder

Ghee

Salt

Water

Here's how you make it:

- In a kadhai, heat ghee, add mustard and carom seeds until they pop. Add potatoes, fry till golden.

- Add the chawli, fry about, add salt, asafoetida, turmeric, red chilli powder. Mix well and add a sprinkle of water. Cover and cook on medium heat for 4-5 minutes.

- Add tomatoes, coriander powder. Mix well. Adjust salt. Cover and cook until potatoes and beans are cooked. Serve hot with chapatis.