Today’s simple meal recipe is Rajma-Chawal i.e. Red Kidney beans with white rice this is a comfort food, and easy to pull. The only prep required id soaking Kidney beans, but as I came in the morning I had enough time to soak the kidney beans and because of the heat of Jaipur, they were ready to cook in just few hours. But when I have less time to soak the beans I use hot water to soak the beans and that prepares the beans in few hours ( 3-4 hours for Chickpeas and Kidney beans)

The recipe is similar to a chana masala, or any Daal Tadka, now the difference in sauce is—the ratio of tomatoes which is double to the onions as we are looking for a more tomato flavor

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Red Kidney beans (Rajma) soaked for at least 6 to 8 hours ( preferably overnight).

1 medium onion

2 medium sized tomato

a little piece of ginger and few cloves of garlic (5-6)

Spices:

Whole spices: 1 cardamom, few cloves, few black pepper, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, 1/2 tsp of cumin

Powdered spices : 1/4 tsp of turmeric, 1/2 tsp of chilli powder, 1 tsp of coriander powder

Salt

Mustard Oil 1 1/2 tbsp

Instructions:

• Rinse and drain the soaked beans, rub 1/2 tbsp of mustard oil (only) add salt and turmeric. Add 4 cups of water and boil the beans till soft. In a pressure cooker you would need 3 cups of water and at least 8-10 whistles on medium to low heat.
• Grind onion-ginger-garlic and tomatoes into a paste, keep it ready.
• Start heating 1 tbsp of mustard oil / vegetable oil in a kadhai or heavy pan
• add all the whole spices, immediately add the wet paste and chilli powder and coriander powder.
• Just follow the instruction as in Masala Sauce 1 for creating wonderfully cooked sauce base like below

• Check the Rajma beans if they are tender and well cooked.
• Once the sauce is ready add it to the cooked Beans and mix well.

When you add the sauce to boiled beans, check the consistency, if it is too thick then you will need to add some hot water otherwise the dish will get too dense later. You can see in the picture boiled beans are looking quite thin and runny.

Once you are happy with the consistency, let the pot simmer for next 10 minutes to get a creamier texture. You will notice a very thin layer of red fat floating on the top once the dish is complete. Also note that there should be no FROTH which means the water we added is not cooked.

Serve hot and fresh with hot steaming rice and a dollop of Ghee

Enjoy.