- Servings: 4-5
- Soaking time: 8-10 hours or overnight.
- Boiling time : 30-35 minutes.
- Preparation time: 5 minutes.
- Frying time: 14 minutes.
- Cooking time: 10 minutes.
- Total time: 29 minutes.
There are several twin recipes popular in Indian cuisine, which are tied so closely they appears to be single recipe like“Chhole– Bhature” “Litti– Chokha” “Dal-Pakwan” etc…”Rajama-Chawal(Red Beans and Steamed Rice)” is one of those, which is favourite combo in many northern Indian homes, rather it is first choice comfort meal for Punjabis. This twin recipes is complete meal too.
The luscious gravy of Rajama curry was highly pleasing to my son in his childhood and now also, as soon as the smell and aroma starts coming from kitchen make them hungry . They enjoy the combo with “Boondi Raita”and “Salad” as side dish…
Let’s talk about the history of Rajma; it is first grown in Mexico carried to Europe by Portuguese then to India.
It is good to lower bad cholesterol and ups the good cholesterol, beneficial for lowering the risk of heart disease.
So stock in your pantry and enjoy…
- Rajma/red beans: 250gm
- Onion: 1 medium
- Tomato: 4 large
- Tamarind pulp: 1 teaspoon
- Cumin: half teaspoon
- Ginger: 2 teaspoon (paste)
- Chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
- Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon
- Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
- Garam masala powder: half teaspoon
- Salt: One and half teaspoon (as per taste)
- Water: 500ml
- Oil: 4 tablespoon
Procedure:
- Soak rajma overnight.
- Grate onion and tomatoes with the help of grater/food processor.
- Boil soaked rajma with salt, turmeric powder and water in a pressure cooker on high flame.
- Bring to full cooking pressure, reduce to low flame and cook for 20-25 minutes.
- Allow cooker to cool and open.
- Take a fry pan. Heat oil add cumin, sputter for few seconds.
- Add grated onion; stir fry till golden brown; add tomatoes and ginger paste continue to fry about 5-7 minutes or liquid dried up, add chilli powder and coriander powder, continue to fry for couple of minutes.
- Add boiled rajma, tamarind paste in it and add water to your requirement (whether you like the gravy thick or watery) lower the flame (about 5-10 minutes).
- Add Garam masala powder and serve it.
Rajma (Red Beans) by Nag Ratna Sahu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.