Two bean curry and spinach in a tomato sauce

Being vegetarian, it’s often difficult to get interesting vegetarian options when on holiday but when we visited Greece, we were amazed at vegetarian dishes  the chefs in out hotel could produce.  My favourite were stuffed peppers and tomatoes and butter beans in a tomato gravy.

Wherever I am on holiday, if I am self catering,  I like to be able to make some quick and easy dishes using readily available ingredients.  With that in mind, I came up with this recipe for a mixed bean curry which was made in a very similar style to the butter beans I had tasted in Greece but with a touch of my Indian spices.

Ingredients for 4 servings

• 1 can of black eyed peas (400gms)
• 1 can of white kidney beans – often called Cannellini beans (400 gms)
• chopped spinach (I used a small block of frozen spinach)
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds (Jeera)
• 2 small pieces of cinnamon
• 2-3 cloves
• 1 cup of passata (you can used canned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes too)
• 1 tbls jaggery (or brown sugar)
• 1 tbls lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2-3 hot green sliced chilies ( less if you don’t like hot food)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 inch of grated ginger
• freshly chopped coriander

Method:

1. Drain the liquid from the black eyed peas and white kidney beans and transfer them to a colander.  Rinse under cold water to remove the sticky salty liquid which comes with these beans.
2. Heat your pan and add the olive oil.  Add the mustard seeds and cinnamon and cloves. Allow these to pop and brown.

3.  Add the passata and stir it once.  Add all the spices – salt, turmeric, the jaggery or brown sugar, lemon juice, coriander, garlic, ginger, frozen spinach and green chilies.  Allow this mixture to cook for 2-3 minutes or until the frozen spinach blends in.

4.  Add in the mixture of beans.  You can actually use any canned beans available for this recipe.  I used the black eyed peas and white kidney beans. 

5.  Mix these with the sauce and add 1 cup of water.  Allow this mixture to simmer away for 15 minutes. When using tinned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, the gravy/sauce may looks runny.  If that happens,  you can add 1-2 teaspoons of corn flour to thicken it.  As I had used passata, my gravy looked perfect.

6.  Serve the beans curry hot with any Indian breads such as Naan bread or rice.

Do you have any quick and easy holiday recipes to share with me?

Other curries to try from my blog are:

• Cannellini Beans Curry (also known as White Kidney Beans)
• Rosecoco beans curry (Borlotti beans curry)
• White and Red Kidney Bean curry with spinach
• Black eyed Beans Curry (Chora nu shak)
• Chick peas (Garbanzo beans) and potato curry or Alu chole

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