For years now, one of my favorite quickie recipes has been a flavorful but utterly simple cauliflower curry that requires just a minimum of ingredients.
The cauliflower goes into a tomato sauce that, together with some turmeric, creates a glorious orange color.
But this time I thought, why not substitute the cauliflower with beans?
So in went some lima beans, those creamy, flavorful little nuggets, and the result was quite wonderful. I guess one could use both cauliflower and limas, and I might just try it that way the next time I make this dish.
So here’s this glorious, gorgeous but super-easy dish that will have you coming back for seconds, and thirds.
Enjoy!
And if you’re looking for another tasty dish with lima beans, be sure to check out this Lima Bean Stew with Swiss Chard. Or these Mashed Lima Bean “Potatoes.”
Lima Bean Curry
Ingredients
- 1 cup lima beans , soaked and then boiled until tender (As I thought of using these at the last minute, I just did a quick soak: I covered the lima beans with water and brought them to a boil. I then turned off the stove and let them stand for an hour, after which I proceeded to pressure-cook them. Believe me, this saves a lot of time than if you were to pressure-cook or stove-cook the dry beans right out of the jar.) Reserve about 3 cups of the liquid in which the beans were cooked, or if you don't have that much, you can add water.
- 2 tomatoes , diced
- 1 tsp cumin seeds + 1 tsp mustard seeds , powdered in a spice grinder.
- 1 tsp cumin seeds for tempering
- 1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
- A pinch of asafetida or hing (optional)
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 3 cloves of garlic , minced
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves , minced
Instructions
- Blend together the tomatoes, cumin-mustard powder and garlic, using just enough water. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the cumin seeds for tempering, and when they sputter, add the asafetida, if using, and the blended tomato mixture.
- Add the chili and turmeric powders and stir in. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
- Now add the beans and liquid to the saucepan. Add salt to taste, and continue to cook until the gravy thickens, about 10 minutes. (If you use cauliflower, add the florets raw when you would the beans, but stir-fry for a couple of minutes before you add some water. Check regularly to ensure that the cauliflower does not overcook.)
- Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice.
(C) All recipes and photographs copyright of Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes.
Asha says
February 23, 2009 atI love baby Lima beans, they are so buttery in dishes. Looks good V, lovely color! 🙂
Cham says
February 23, 2009 atI am huge fan of lima beans , great curry for roti or rice.
Mihl says
February 23, 2009 atI really, really can’t get enough of beany curries! Thank you so much for another awesome recipe.
Trupti says
February 23, 2009 atLima bean curry one of my fav. Your version of curry looks very delicious
Priya says
February 23, 2009 atDelicious curry..looks really colourful n yummy!!
Sunshinemom says
February 24, 2009 atCurry looks great! I love any kind of beans but I don’t think we get this here.
John Etsweiler says
October 27, 2016 atTry looking for Butter Beans. They are used in recipes such as Vaal Nu Shaak and Pavta Bhaji. Hope this helps you find them – they are delicious. Not popular in the North, or at least hard to find, but well worth looking for. There are some excellent canned versions where you are.
Jack Etsweiler
Ann Arbor, MI
Pavithra Kodical says
February 24, 2009 atI use legumes in most of our diet.Delicious recipe..In my To Do list 🙂
Sharmila says
February 24, 2009 atJust the kind of cooking I love … fast and easy. 🙂 I just let the cooker shout a few more extras if cooking any beans right out of the jar. 🙂
Madhumathi says
February 24, 2009 atThats a lovely curry..I love lima beans and I can’t wait to try this 🙂
TBC says
February 24, 2009 atThanks for the recipe, Vaishali. I made this.:)
It is super quick. I used frozen lima beans and added some rice flour towards the end to thicken it up a bit.
It goes really well with rice.:)
Poornima Nair says
February 24, 2009 atI had lima beans for the first time last week and bought a pack this weekend. Gonna try this, it looks delicious.
Usha says
February 24, 2009 atI was thinking of making some type of lima bean curry this week and this seems like a great recipe to try with lima beans 🙂
Aparna says
February 25, 2009 atThanks for painting this post “Orange”, Vaishali. Lima beans sounds delicious, and cauliflower lover that I am, I’m sure it would be even better with the cauliflower.:)
Ruksana says
January 17, 2011 atThanks so much for this, I cooked lima beans today for the first time and used your recipe, they came out absolutely delish. Am sharing your link on my blog. Happy New Year 🙂
Bindu says
July 19, 2017 atWhere do i get Lima Beans in India and what are they called?