This is a five-star recipe adapted from Hari Nayak’s “My Indian Kitchen”. The five stars are my rating, not the book. the book is much more humble than that.
A rich coriander-coconut sauce envelops sweet green peas and beans. The carrots add colour and the potato adds just enough thickness (gluten-free!) to bring it all together into a huge pot of comfort. I skip the shredded coconut called for, and up the amount of sweet and starchy peas. I even had fresh curry leaves though dried are fine.
Hyberabadi Mixed Vegetables
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
3 tbsp plus 2 cups water
1 cup fresh coriander leaves and stems, plus 1/4 cup minced leaves to garnish
2 fresh green chili peppers (ideally these are long, green cayenne chili peppers that are less sweet than red ones, but you can use jalapenos that are more bitter or the red sweeter cayennes. Or other fresh ones – serranos or whatever you can find. Indian cooking is wonderfully adaptable)
3 tbsp oil
12 shallots (about 1/4 lb or 125 g), peeled and cut into wedges. If you don’t have shallots use red onions or vidalia onions. you want a sweeter onion. Green onions are okay as a last ditch effort
10 fresh or dried curry leaves
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 half-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander (grinding it yourself makes all the difference in the world with coriander)
1 tsp ground cumin (not quite “all the difference in the world” but still very, very different than using pre-ground stuff that’s been sitting in your pantry for a year)
1 1/2 cups green peas, fresh or frozen (it apparently takes 1 lb of fresh pea pods to get enough green peas if you use fresh…see you in a year)
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 potato, peeled and diced (about 3/4 cups)
2 cups coconut milk (or just use one can)
Instructions:
Make a paste by blending the onion, 3 tbsp water, coriander leaves and stems (minus the 1/4 cup reserved leaves), and chili peppers.
Heat the oil over medium and sauté the shallots, curry leaves, ginger, and garlic for 3 minutes.
It’s going to stick so add a little water a tbsp at a time as needed. Stir constantly.
Then add the paste from the blender and the salt. Cook for 5 minutes.
Now add the rest of the spices and all the vegetables and stir for one minute. You want to stir the seasonings into the veggies before adding the water.
Now add the 2 cups water, bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the vegetables aren’t tender after 15 you can give them another 5.
Then add the coconut milk and minced coriander leaves. Taste and adjust salt. If it’s too thick add a little water. If too thin, boil gently until thick enough to suit your tastes. I like to reserve a little coconut milk from the can to add. Every brand of coconut milk is different – some are higher fat and therefore creamier, and some are pretty milky and you’ll need more. Some just don’t taste like anything. This should be slightly sweet and thick without being chowder-like. I’d recommend organic coconut milk (not cream since it’s just too thick), and the heavier the can, the better. That means there’s more cream in the can and less water.
Serve hot with (not American-made) Basmati rice and a dal (a kind of lentil soup or stew). If you don’t have a good dal recipe, write “dal” in my recipe search bar on the top right of this blog and you soon will.
Extra photo: “The Mess” (See, I actually used my kitchen scale!)
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