Recipes

Black eyed Beans Curry (Chora nu shak)

Black eyed beans (called chora in Gujarati) (also called Lobia or black eyed peas) are full of protein, are easy to cook and taste really great. They are available ready boiled in cans or as dried beans which need to be soaked for at least 2 hours in cold water before cookiing.

How to cook them: The best way to boil them is in a pressure cooker as it is quicker. I tend to soak a huge batch overnight and cook them all in a pressure cooker or the Instant Pot with plenty of water. Add a couple of drops of oil in the pressure cooking before shutting the lid and this helps to cook the beans and stops the pressure cooker from over flowing. Drain off all the water once the beans are cooked and allow the beans to cool. Freeze the extra beans in zip lock bags to use when needed.

As I always have a supply of ready boiled black eyed beans I do add them to salads, stuffed peppers or cottage pies.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 cups of boiled black eyed beans. If using dry black eyed beans remember you need to soak them overnight and then boil them until soft preferably in a pressure cooker.
I cup of crushed tomatoes, fresh tomatoes or Passata.
2 tbls of oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole coriander
1 dried red chili
2-3 cloves
1-2 small Cincinnati
1 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1-2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tbls lemon juice
1 tbls jaggery or brown sugar (optional)
1 small bunch of coriander and some curry leaves.
2 fresh green chilies sliced into 4

Method:

1. Add all the spices -salt, turmeric,chilly powder, crushed garlic, lemon juice, green chilies, curry leaves, coriander and jaggery to the tomato mixture and mix it all together. If using fresh tomatoes, I suggest that you boil them in hot water to soften them first .

2. Add the 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a saucepan and, add the cumin seeds, whole coriander, dried red chili, cloves and cinnamon . Allow them to cook until they cloves pop and cumin looks dark brown.

3. Add the tomato mixture with the spices to this hot oil and cook until the tomatoes go soft and homogeneous.

4. Add the boiled black eyed beans to the tomato mixture and allow to cook for 10 minutes.

5. The sauce should all be nicely soaked up by the black eyed beans.

Tip:Some people like their gravy to be runny in which case you can add half a cup of water to the mixture.

6. Serve the curry with rice and chapattis.

If you have the Instant Pot follow this recipe

Other curries to try from my blog are:

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Tags: Black eyed beans curryChora nu shakcurryMirage seriesvegetarianveggie

Mina Joshi

I am a busy working mum who aims to make quick and healthy authentic vegetarian and vegan dishes for my family. I am also a face to face and online cookery teacher, recipe developer, restaurant and product reviewer. I share all recipes with step by step instructions.