Fragrant and spicy (but hot overly hot), this vegan dish with canned butter beans is a quick, satisfying main course when served with rice, naan or roti. It can also be a flavorful side. Recipe below.
LIKE MOST EVERYONE, WE’RE COOKING AT HOME. A LOT. So we’re trying to mix things up as much as possible, keep things interesting. A recent grocery delivery included canned butter beans. We both love butter beans, and I primarily equate them with the American South. But when Marion was too busy to cook one evening, she nudged me toward dishes of the Indian subcontinent.
As much as we both enjoy the various cuisines that come from this vast region, we don’t get to restaurants serving them nearly often enough. When we do, the menu often is something of a learning curve for me. In the kitchen, it is even more so.
So I looked at a few recipes, riffed on one of them and said here goes. In doing so, I learned the official name for an Indian cooking technique, something I’d done when following a couple of the Indian-style recipes I’ve cooked. Tempering. It is a thing done to dried seeds and spices, cooking them just briefly in oil to change their flavor and to flavor the oil itself. We often toast seeds in a dry pan, then grind them, but this is a different process altogether.
I have now cooked this delicious dish twice. The second time was so I could photograph it—we were halfway through eating it the first time before deciding we should share it here.
Indian-style Butter Beans
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed or vegetable oil, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon mustard seed
- 1 teaspoon cumin seed
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped green chile serrano or jalapeño
- 1/2 teaspoon hing (asafoetida, optional, but desirable—see Kitchen Notes)
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (can substitute canned—see kitchen notes)
- 1 teaspoon New Mexican chile powder or your favorite
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup water
- 2 15- ounce cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
- salt, as needed
- cooked white rice, preferably basmati (or naan or roti)
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium high heat in a large sauté pan. When oil is shimmering, reduce heat to medium and add mustard and cumin seed. Temper the spices, cooking and stirring until they are fragrant and starting to pop in the oil.
- Add garlic, ginger, chile and hing to pan, stirring to combine. Cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds.
- Add onion to pan, drizzling in a little more oil, if needed. Stir to combine and cook, stirring frequently, until onion starts to soften, about 3 minutes. Don’t brown the onion—reduce heat, if needed.
- Add tomato to pan and stir to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 4 minutes. Add chile powder, garam masala, coriander and cinnamon to the pan and stir to combine. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add water and scrape up any browned bits. Add butter beans. Raise heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, partially covered, until all the flavors have combined and developed. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, if needed.
- Serve over cook rice in shallow bowls. You can also serve it with naan or roti.
This looks great — so full of flavor. Really nice spice mixture. We cook Indian fairly often. More Indian-style, I should say — Indian flavors, but probably a combination no Indian cook would ever put together. But we like it, so we call it good. And we’d definitely call this good — neat recipe. Thanks.