Lima Bean Curry

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It constantly amazes me the amount of calories that one can easily consume when eating out. I know I have mentioned this in the past too, but what can I say.... it shocks me anew every time I read an article that tells me about how much calories are there in seemingly innocent sounding items. Did you know that every one of the shakes served at Coldstone is at least 1000 calories, yes that is 1000 calories that you are seeing and at least 92 grams of sugar. Phew! that is almost the daily requirement of calories that women need in an entire day.The article I was reading goes on and on about the various pitfalls to our diet in restaurant food and also has some eye opening information about some restaurants that will not divulge calorie content in their food. I can only imagine that this means that the news is not expected to be good and hence they are avoiding giving out that information. You can read the entire article here

If after reading about all the unhealthy foods makes you feel like heading to the kitchen to start making something healthy and wholesome, then how about this lima bean curry. I make this curry when I am looking for something different from a korma and yet am not looking for the same old garam masala version of curries. The flavors in this are simple and this curry is not very spicy, but the aroma and flavors from this curry will have you coming back for a second helping for sure.

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Ingredients and Method to make Lima bean curry

I large yellow onion (cut fine) (can be substituted with white or red onion too)

2 large roma tomatoes cut fine

3/4 tsp coriander powder

3/4 tsp cumin powder

4 cups frozen lima beans thawed

salt to taste

Grind together

2 green chillies (small Indian or thai variety) (or according to taste)

1 inch piece of ginger

3 tbsp of fresh grated coconut (or frozen thawed to room temperature)

1 inch piece of cinnamon

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

For seasoning

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

handful of cilantro washed well and chopped fine for garnish

Grind together green chillies, ginger, coconut, cinnamon and fennel seeds with a little water to a fine paste and keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it.

When mustard and cumin seeds start spluttering, add onions to it and saute until onions are tranparent.

Add tomatoes and cook it until tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

Add thawed lima beans, cumin and coriander powder, salt to taste and a little water to cook the beans.

When the beans are cooked, soft and yet not mushy, add the ground paste and water to achieve required consistency and simmer together for a few minutes until flavors are blended.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with roti/ plain steamed rice or cumin flavored rice.

Serves approximately 3

Suggested variation

You can use whole either black eyed peas or whole moong bean in this preparation. If you use them dry, just soak them overnight (in case of whole moong bean soaking for 5 to 6 hours is sufficient) and cook them on a stove top or pressure cook them and keep aside) After tomatoes are cooked and soft and mushy, just proceed with using cooked moong bean or cooked black eyed peas, simmer for a few minutes and proceed with the rest of the recipe.