benazir's blog

A Very Basic Lima Beans Curry

Actually this is one of my favorite beans dish and I desided to make this in to a curry which is awesome. I hope you will love this as much as Mr. Riaz and I do. Typically lima beans are not a part of Indian and Pakistani cuisene but they love black eyed peas and chickpeas though. That is very common there and they also call it chana or lobia. Lobia also means beans in Arabic too.

In a mortar and pestle add 1 pinch each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds and black peppercorns to a mortar and pestle. Grind in to a coarse powder and set this aside. In an instant pot turn on to sautè function on high for 5 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of either olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil or corn oil. To this either add 3 pats of butter, 1 tsp of either coconut oil, mustard oil or butter ghee. Stir and add 1 onion or shallot cut in to half moon slices, 3 cloves of garlic minced, 1 pinch each of turmeric, red chili powder and paprika. Add either 1 pinch of kosher salt, pink salt or sea salt. Add 1 tomato and let it turn mushy. If frozen it will turn mushy right away which is a good thing.

Add 1/2 half bag of dried lima beans that has been soaked with 1 pinch of baking soda added. Rince the beans before you add them or add 1 bag of the frozen lima beans straight from the bag. Stir and if the instant pot does not shut off by then then you select cancel. Add 5 cups of water. Just make sure they cover the beans and place the pressure cook lid on and select pressure cook and make sure it is on high. You can press the pressure cook button by toggling it to either high or low. High is what you need and make sure the cooker is on sealing position and it is for 15 minutes then select start.

You can walk away and do something else while this is going and no need to hover over this cooker because it is so easy to use. When it shuts off it will jingle and place the steam diverter on the vent for it to release on its own or you can tap quick release. If the bean is not soft enough to your liking then repeat the process by this time you do not have to set the time. Just select pressure cook and start. It will shut off on its own. This time it will be perfect and you can enjoy this with nann, plain desi yogurt and achar.

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