Rajma
One of the things I wanted to achieve with my blog, was to show people that food is enjoyable. However, some people have limitations to what they can eat, and I know it's frustrating having to find ways of adapting recipes, paying a fortune for specialist ingredients and feeling like food is a chore - hence the introduction of Free From & Friendly Week!
I'm kicking off the week with Rajma, a North Indian kidney bean curry. It's rich, flavourful and tastes naughty, when in fact it is the complete opposite. This dish is a regular in my house, it's a dish in its own right, but great as an accompaniment too.
Tips, tricks and hints
One of the things I wanted to achieve with my blog, was to show people that food is enjoyable. However, some people have limitations to what they can eat, and I know it's frustrating having to find ways of adapting recipes, paying a fortune for specialist ingredients and feeling like food is a chore - hence the introduction of Free From & Friendly Week!
I'm kicking off the week with Rajma, a North Indian kidney bean curry. It's rich, flavourful and tastes naughty, when in fact it is the complete opposite. This dish is a regular in my house, it's a dish in its own right, but great as an accompaniment too.
RAJMA IS...
Ingredients
(Makes 2 main meal portions or 4 side dishes)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used rapeseed)
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 small white onion, roughly chopped
- 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
- 75g grated ginger
- 4 gloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 medium, ripe tomato, diced
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 heaped tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1 tin of kidney beans (typically 400g), drained or the equivalent of dried beans, soaked overnight and drained
Method
- Heat the vegetable oil in a deep based frying pan (such as a khadai), on a low heat, for two minutes.
- Add the onions, garlic, ginger, tomato and turmeric to the pan, and fry for ten minutes, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking.
- Add the garam masala, salt and chilli powder, and fry for a further two minutes.
- Add the kidney beans to the pan, and then add enough water, so that the kidney beans are just covered.
- Bring to a simmer, and then crush some of the beans with a wooden spoon, to release the starch and help thicken the sauce.
- Leave to simmer for ten minutes, until the sauce is thick and reduced.
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| Rajma |
Tips, tricks and hints
- If you're not a lover of spicy food, you can reduce the amount of chilli powder. You can omit it completely, but the colour of the dish won't be as bright.
- Feeling lazy? You can buy frozen onion, garlic and ginger from most supermarkets, it's still cheap, but saves time on preparation and cleaning, when you want to rustle up a quick mid-week meal!
- This meal freezes really well, and can just be defrosted overnight or in the microwave.
- This dish works out at around £1.00 (providing you have all the spices already), so it's super cheap!
- Tinned kidney beans are on average 0.35p a tin in UK supermarkets, and they work out cheaper than buying dried (excluding those following raw food diets).