Starting today, I will be posting recipes with one vegetable for the next 3 days. The vegetable I chose is green beans. My first choice was ridge gourd and the day I did my Indian groceries, ridge gourd wasn't fresh. And second, Indian groceries is one shopping I never look forward to and I do it once a month and sometimes once in two months. Consideration this, I decided to do a vegetable that is easily available in any grocery store and picked green beans.
Before I go further, let me clarify that Indian dry curries are often called as fries and there is no deep frying involved in the preparation. Today I have a dry curry with green beans and soya chunks. I am not very fond of soya chunks but do not mind the mini chunks and granulated soya. I usually make a simple green beans fry by sauteing green beans with some onions, green chilies, chili powder, garlic and salt. But on meatless Wednesday's, I thrown in some protein to get my share of protein for the day.
For this recipe I used mini soya chunks. Soya granules can also be used. I am not a big fan of soya nuggets or chunks as I do not like the taste of it. However, whenever I make it, I marinate cooked soya with some chili powder and salt before cooking the curry. I find well seasoned and marinated soya is more palatable than the one that is directly cooked into a curry. Here is a simple soya green beans saute that goes well with both rice and roti.
Total Time: 30 - 35 minutes
Preparation: 15 minutes (includes time required to cook soya)
Cooking Time: 15 - 20 minutes
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients:
- ⅓ - ½ cup Mini Soya Chunks (I used ⅓ cup)
- ¼ - ½ tsp. Chili Powder
- ⅓ tsp. Coriander Cumin Powder or Coriander Powder
- ¼ - ½ tsp. Salt (I listed salt twice as this is for marinating the soya)
- 12 oz ~ 340 grams Green Beans, cut into ¾ - 1” pieces or even smaller pieces
- 2 tbsp. Oil
- 4-5 Curry Leaves
- 1 small Onion, chopped
- 3 Green Chilies chopped
- 2-3 tsp. Garlic crushed
- ½ teaspoon Salt (adjust to taste)
- Turmeric
- Cilantro for garnish
Preparation:
- Bring 1-1 ¼ cups water to boil.
- Add pinch of salt, soya chunks and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the stove, cover and let the chunks sit for a minute or two. Or follow the instructions on the back of the box for cooking soya.
- Discard water and wash soya several times. Squeeze out as much water as possible, marinate the chunks with chili powder, salt (¼ - ½ tsp) and coriander powder. Marinate for at least 15 minutes.
- Heat oil in a pan. Here I used a stainless pan. If using a nonstick pan, can use less oil. When oil is hot, add onions and curry leaves.
- When onions are translucent, add green chilies, crushed garlic and sauté for a minute.
- Add salt, turmeric and mix well.
- Add soya chunks and give a good stir.
- Add beans, mix until spices are well coated, cover and cook on medium flame until beans is tender, stirring in between. If necessary, reduce the flame halfway into cooking.
- Once the beans is tender, remove the lid and continue sautéing the beans on low flame until moisture is gone and the curry is done. Taste the curry and adjust seasoning to taste.
- Turn off the heat, garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or roti.
Notes:
- I used mini soya chunks and granulated soya can also be used.
- I usually do not add mustard and cumin seeds to tempering. That is my personal choice but if one wishes, add some cumin or cumin + mustard seeds before adding onions to hot oil.
- I usually add some cumin powder when sauteing beans. I skipped it here as I used a coriander cumin powder when marinating soya. Last time I did my groceries I brought coriander cumin powder by mistake instead of coriander powder. 🙂
This day in:
2012 - Pasta Salad
2013 - Grilled Stuffed Mackerel
2014 - Microwave Roasted Spicy Peanuts
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#65
annu says
Innovative combo there. Never mixed these two. Would do soon.
Mireille Roc (@ChefMireille) says
I love green beans and this is such a healthy dish
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Love the bright green beans!
Vaishali Sabnani says
Great way to incorporate [protein with veggie..a good combo, though even I am no soya fan.
Pavani says
That is a yummy looking beans kura Usha. I have the idea of marinating the soy chunks before hand - makes them so much more flavorful.
themadscientistskitchen says
Love the green colour of the beans. As for soya chunks. I too don't like them but will try your method of making them. To sum up a delicious veggie that I have loved and will try out.
Smruti | Herbivore Cucina says
Such a vibrant dish. The bright green colored beans complements the soya chunks so well!
Srivalli says
Never paired soya with beans, that bowl looks so inviting!
Archana says
Very interesting combo
Priya Suresh says
Very interesting fry, never combined green beans with soya chunks, cant wait to give a try.
Varada says
I love how the beans have not lost their vibrant color. And I am the same with Indian stores, try to avoid going there.