A creamy canary beans curry made with coconut milk, spices and yellow canary beans. You can sub out other beans like kidney beans or pinto beans in this recipe.
As much as I cook with beans and lentils, and love them, I had never before tried canary beans, although I'd seen them often enough at the grocery store.Canary beans, I'm guessing, are so called because of their lovely yellow color. I used these to make a curry, Maharashtrian style, with coconut milk.
I must say I loved these beans. They hold their shape beautifully when cooked, but dissolve creamily in your mouth. They were perfect in this curry, but doubtlessly I will be looking for more recipes to make with these in the future.
I've been having a busy weekend, so I'm just going to get on with the recipe. Sometimes, I guess, you deserve a break from my babble. Enjoy the last few hours of the weekend, everyone!
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Canary Beans Curry
Ingredients
- 1 cup canary beans (cooked until tender. Soak overnight if possible if using dry beans. If using canned beans, use 2 14-oz cans after draining the brine)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 5 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 inch knob ginger (chopped)
- 2-3 green chili peppers (like serrano or jalapeno)
- 2 tablespoon jaggery (available in Indian stores. You can substitute with 2 tablespoon sugar)
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ½ cup cilantro (minced)
- ½ cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saucepan.
- Add the onions and saute until translucent, about five minutes on medium heat.
- Grind together the ginger, garlic, green chilies and the coriander and cumin powders into a fairly smooth paste.
- Add the paste to the onions and saute until the mixture is rather dry and does not smell raw, about 5 minutes.
- Add the beans and turmeric. Add salt to taste and a cup of water and bring to a boil. If the curry gets too dry at any time, add more water, a little at a time.
- Simmer on low heat about 5 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk, jaggery and lemon juice and heat through.
- Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander leaves.
- Serve hot with rice.
Teresa
Just made this yesterday and it is so delicious! We didn't feel like venturing to more than one grocery store because covid so we subbed 2 jalapenos for the green chiles and it worked quite well. Thank you for the great recipe and I can't wait to explore your website for more ideas!
Anonymous
I'm in the process of making this recipe and I've run into a problem. You say to bring it to a boil and to simmer for 5 minutes. But you have not mentioned any liquid! Your step of adding 4 oz of coconut milk comes after this step. Please respond and tell me how much liquid you used. EileenFrances@earthlink.net
Vaishali Honawar
Anon, add water a little at a time if the curry is too dry. You should have had some water from boiling the beans too.
Mark
See step 5
Anonymous
I'm making this tomorrow. How many servings does this recipe make?
Patrick B.
Made this last night. It was terrific. The step where you add the beans is a bit confusing. Where does the liquid for boiling come from? I just used enough water to cover the beans and it worked well.
Vaishali
FayeHilary: glad you pointed it out-- you need 1/2 cup of canned coconut milk. Mix the milk in the can before using it because it tends to separate with the thick layer on top and thin on the bottom. Hope that helps 🙂
FayeHilary
Bought canary beans awhile ago and found the blog while looking for a recipe. Since I haven't cooked with coconut milk could someone please give me an idea of how much to put in? Planning on making it tomorrow night for dinner--so if I don't hear it could be an even grander experiment--lol. Thanks and btw, enjoyed the commentary too.
Malar Gandhi
Looks fab' and very inviting...bet it tadted great!
Rajani
never had canary beans... they look pretty. got some navy beans though so maybe I can try a white version?!
Vaishali
Susan, thanks! They are really pretty indeed. I can imagine how lovely they'd look nestled with some pintos, pink beans, cannelinis, red beans and black beans.
Sharmi, THanks!
Gita, yes they are available here in the US. I am quite sure you'd find them in the Hispanic foods aisle of any supermarket. Hope you try them!
Vij, Thanks!
Valerie, How wonderful you found them! Please let me know how they turn out.
Vij
creamy and rich gravy! looks so tempting! yum yum yummmy!
Gita's Kitchen
Canary beans is new to me. Is it available in US? The creamy curry looks so delicious, I should try this curry soon 🙂
Sharmi
hi Vaishali, regarding the puttu maker, these days we can find it in US too. Its easy to get it from online stores. I am not sure if we can use a idly steamer. you can give a try though.
Valerie (again)
Yesterday, I'd never heard of canary beans. Today, I was walking through Kensington Market, in Toronto, and what should I find, but Canary beans at a Mexican grocery store. So, guess what I'm making tomorrow, thanks to you. I can't wait to try them; they're so pretty.
Susan
I bought canary beans ages ago, when I first started MLLA, specifically because they are so very pretty. They are used often in Latin (especially South American) recipes.
Your dreamy curry makes me want to hurry up now and cook with them.
Happy New Year, Vaishali! Best wishes to Desi and the critters, too.
Anushruti
That looks like an interesting way to serve your favourite beans!
Vaishali
DJ Karma: I hope you try them- you'll love them. And I'm happy to know you like my babble 🙂 I'll keep it up!
Mahimaa, Thanks. The curry on your blog certainly looks delicious.
Cham, Thanks.
Madhu, Thanks, and I highly recommend them.
Sunshinemom, I don't remember ever seeing canary beans in India- they're something I only discovered here, along with pinto beans and pink beans. I love legumes, so the more beans there are, the merrier I am!
Alka, You can definitely do this curry with rajma. I am sure it'll give you very similar results.
Uma, thanks. I love that turquoise blue of my bowl, too.
Valerie, thanks for the vote on my babble! You girls make me so happy.
Dear Shreya, Happy new year, and you can definitely try this with another bean. Rajma, as Alka suggests, would work great, but so would baby limas or even chickpeas.
Shreya
Hi Vaishali, Happy New Year! Love the recipe, and I have not heard or seen this bean before. Hope I can use the same recipe on some other bean:-)
Valerie
I've never heard of canary beans, so I'll be checking out the local latin grocery stores to see if I can find them there.
I agree with DJKarma, your babble is fun to read.
Uma
lovely curry! looks so inviting and mouth-watering. Nice bowl!
Alka
Yet to try out any canary beans,but i guess i can go ahead and try this recipe with rajma...wht say huh?
Sunshinemom
Curry looks delightfully delicious! I haven't tried canary beans - my legume taste is very very limited!
Madhu
I too have never tried canary beans,looks creamy.I soould find this next time i go grocery shopping.
Cham
It is called peruano bean too... We can find everywhere here in CA! I really love the buttery flavor of the bean, nice curry!
Mahimaa's kitchen
gravy looks so creamy and yummy:) i made a similar one using peas today.
DJ Karma
I'll have to give canary beans a try too! I like your babble by the way 🙂