Green Beans Poriyal

I was going to post this recipe last Sunday but had to change my recipe in the last minute. Poriyal is a vegetable saute from South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Vegetable is sauteed with tempering ingredients, dry chilies and finished off with fresh grated coconut.

In this poriyal, red chilies are used for spice and I was tempted to add some chili powder as well. Srivalli and Kalyani clarified that in Tamil cuisine chili powder is not used in dry vegetable sautes and the only exception being root vegetables.

Keeping that in mind, I used only red chilies. If it were not for the blog, I would have preferred some chili powder as well. Though I used 3 red chilies, it was a bit bland to my taste. However, I liked eating it as is like a salad.

The other ingredient I would skip is asafetida and instead use crushed garlic. However, I used a pinch of asafetida here. Beans poriyal goes well with both rice and roti.

Source: Dakshin, Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan
Total Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 - 20 minutes
Serves: 2 - 3

Ingredients:

300 grams (10 ½ oz.) Green Beans, chopped
1 tbsp. Oil
3 Dry Red Chilies, broken into two
½ tsp. Cumin
½ tsp. Mustard Seeds
½ tsp. Urad Dal, washed
½ tsp. Chana Dal, washed
⅛ - ¼ tsp. Hing ~ Asafetida (I used ⅛ tsp)
4-6 Curry Leaves
½ - ¾ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
1 ½ - 2 tbsp. Water
1 ½ - 2 tbsp. sliced Coconut, coarsely ground (I used frozen coconut)

Preparation:

Wash green beans, trim the edges and cut into small pieces.
Grate fresh coconut. I used frozen coconut slices and ground it coarsely.
Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot, add chilies, mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, chana dal, hing, curry leaves and let mustard seeds crackle and dals turn light golden brown.
Add salt, green beans and give a good stir.
Add 1 ½ - 2 tablespoon of water, cover and cook beans on low flame until beans are tender. Stir in between and it will take about 8-10 minutes.
Remove the lid, add grated coconut, stir and increase the flame to medium high and saute beans until it is dry, about 2-4 minutes.
Serve with rice or roti.

Notes:

I rarely use hing in my cooking and hence used less hing in this poriyal. If one uses it in your everyday cooking, can add more.
I used 3 long dry chilies yet it was not hot to my taste. I was tempted to add some chili powder but held back as it is not usually added to beans poriyal.

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This day in 2012: Flan ~ Caramel Pudding
This day in 2013: Fenugreek Dal Stir Fry
This day in 2015: Mushroom Tofu Sandwich