Butter Beans Curry

Butter beans are white or cream coloured flat beans. They are rich in vitamin C, vitamin A and thiamin. They are a good source of protein plus they are very low in calories and fat. I have come to love these beans not only because of their nutritional benefits but also for their rich taste.

Another thing if, you are pretty busy with either work or school, beans and other legumes tend to become your friends. Let’s take the case of these beans, I bought a 1 kg pack, then washed and soaked the beans overnight. The following day, I cooked them in a pressure cooker for about an hour and they were done. Once cooled, I packed in portions enough for three people then refrigerated. This helps because if I want to cook beans in the evening all I do is remove one pack from the freezer and voila, stew in 20 minutes tops.

Ingredients:

1 half of a medium sized onion sliced

2 tomatoes diced

1 tablespoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon coriander powder

1/4 tablespoon black pepper

1 cup pre cooked butter beans

2 bay leaves

1 cup water or vegetable stock

Handful of dhania chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt to taste

First, have you guys noticed how expensive some vegetables have become? I was shocked the other day when I went to the market and found that 8 and I mean 8 tomatoes are going for 100 shillings (slightly above one dollar). The onions and the dhania are equally expensive. The horror. It seems until the shortage ends, I’ll stick to using onion halves and substituting tomatoes with tomato paste. Enough with my rant back to the cooking.

In a sufuria, heat the vegetable oil. Saute the onions. When I was setting out my ingredients, I realised that there was a potato laying around, so instead of throwing it out, I peeled, washed then diced it and added it to the sauteed onions.