Easy Indian Food Recipes, Green Beans with Onion Paste, Madhur Jaffrey

Green Beans with Onion Paste

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There is absolutely no one who knows Indian food better than Madhur Jaffrey. I have three of her cookbooks that I've made splendid Indian meals from. I don't know why I waited so long to make this particular recipe from her cookbook "An Invitation to Indian Cooking".

It includes my favorite vegetable, and better yet it doesn't require any exotic or hard to find spices. Whether you enjoy it as a vegetable side dish or as a main vegetarian dish I guarantee you'll find yourself making this delicious and easy to make Indian green bean recipe again and again.

As Madhur Jaffrey notes in her cookbook, these green beans "will be a brownish dark green, smothered in spices and utterly delicious."

Green Beans with Onion Paste

1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of fresh ginger, about 1 inch square, coarsely chopped
1 medium-sized canned tomato, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
10 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole black mustard seeds (I couldn't find black so I used yellow)
Optional - 1 or 2 whole dried red peppers OR 1/2 hot fresh green chili sliced in half OR 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (or to taste)

Garnish - 1 tablespoon finely chopped Chinese parsley (Coriander or Cilantro)

Wash the beans. Trim the ends. Slice the beans into rounds about 1/8" - 1/4" thick.

Put the onion, garlic, ginger, tomato and turmeric in a blender and blend into a smooth paste.

Put 6 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in an 8-inch skillet or heavy-bottomed pan, and heat it on medium. Pour in mixture from blender and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time, adding a teaspoon of warm water if and when it starts to stick to the bottom. Now put in the coriander and cumin and continue frying another 5 minutes, again adding a teaspoon of warm water if necessary to prevent sticking.

In a 10-inch skillet, heat the remaining tablespoons of oil over a medium flame. When very hot, put in the whole cumin and mustard seeds. After 10 seconds, add the whole red peppers if you are using them. Stir once, and as the peppers darken and the mustard seeds begin to pop, put in the sliced green beans and the sliced green chili if you are using it. Now scrape up all the mixture from the first skillet and add it to the beans. Fry the beans on medium flame for 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Turn heat to low, add the salt and lemon juice, and let the beans cook covered, stirring now and then, until they are tender (about 35 minutes). If you are using cayenne pepper, stir in 5 minutes before the end of cooking time. If the beans stick to the skillet, add 1 tablespoon of water, stir and keep cooking.

These beans can be cooked in advance and reheated over a low flame. Serve them in a warm dish, and if you like sprinkle finely chopped Chinese parsley over them.

My suggestions - Fry the mixture from the blender in a deep heavy pot to keep splatter down. Make sure you fry the mixture well, it's essential to the overall flavor of the dish. I think it needed a bit more lemon. I also used a lot more cilantro than called for. It's a fabulous blast of flavor in the dish. I think the dish needed to cook longer than 35 minutes, I'd suggest you allow 45 minutes.

Easy Indian Food Recipes

Easy Chicken Curry
Ginger Garlic Green Beans
Green Beans with Coconut
Green Beans with Onion Paste
Indian Style Green Beans & Carrots
Mulligatawny Soup

Tasty & Easy Green Bean Recipes

Armenian Green Beans with Ground Meat and Tomatoes
Blanched Green Beans
Fried Green Beans
Ginger Garlic Green Beans
Greek Green Beans
Greek Potatoes and Green Beans
Green Beans a'la Waterman's
Green Beans Almondine
Green Beans Almondine (with a hint of lemon)
Green Beans Almondine (with an Asian flair)
Green Beans Almondine (with mushrooms)
Green Bean Casserole (Campbell's)
Green Bean Casserole (Cook's Illustrated)
Green Beans in Sour Cream & Tomato Sauce
Green Bean Salad, Dill, Parsley & Savory
Green Bean Salad, Feta & Pecans
Green Bean Salad, Provençal
Green Bean Salad, Soy Glazed Almonds, Cilantro
Green Beans with Coconut
Green Beans with Ginger Butter
Green Beans with Onion Paste (Madhur Jaffrey)
Green Beans with Shallots
Italian Green Beans (St. Anna Beans)
Oven Roasted Green Beans
Pears with Green Beans & Bacon
Persian Green Beans & Rice
Sautéed Green Beans with Hazelnut Crumbs
Sesame & Portobello Green Beans
Sicilian Green Bean & Fennel Salad (Cooking Light)
Stir-Fried Green Beans with Pork & Chilies
Sweet & Sour Green Beans

Greek Green Beans
I found this yummy and easy recipe for Greek green beans on a vegetarian cooking site www.all-creatures.org. As mentioned on our home page, green bean have a world-wide appeal and every culture has adapted them with their own unique taste. Greek's prefer their green beans simmered until the beans are soft. They add onions, tomatoes, garlic and oregano.

Quick and easy recipes for fresh green beans, gourmet green bean recipes
There is nothing that can quite match the taste of farm fresh green beans. Sure, the prep time is a bit longer than if you were opening a can or using a bag out of the freezer, but it's a real treat and one I like to take advantage of since the season only lasts for a few months of the year.

Different varieties of green beans
I remember the first time I heard the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten use the term haricot verts I couldn't think what it could be. Knowing how Ina loves French cooking I knew that it must be some fabulous French ingredient I'd never heard of. Well, imagine my surprise when I leared that haricot verts were green beans! True haricot verts are very thin, crisp and tender green beans.