[N]: I generally plan my dinner on my way to work. Yes I plan my dinner even before having my lunch. On this day I was running late. I was already on the train way home and I had not decided what to cook for dinner. I wanted to have something spicy and I knew I had boiled some aduki bean earlier in the week. So I searched for aduki bean curry. I did not expect many recipes but as always I was in for a surprise. I chose this Madhu Jaffrey inspired recipe as I had most of the ingredients.

As always I felt obliged to add some vegetables to make it a complete meal. It was a real delight and I felt I had to write it down as I would love to repeat it. This should take about 50 mins to cook. For a more detailed version you may want to use the original link.

I started by finely chopping one large white onion. I then heated about 2 tbsp of mustard oil (unfortunately mine comes mixed with rapeseed oil) added  1 tsp of yellow mustard and watched it sputter. Then added 1 tsp of turmeric, 1 tsp of coriander, 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of garam masala and 1 tsp of cinnamon to the heated oil. Within a few seconds I added the onion to the fried spices and mixed it well. I then added a few drops of water to the mixture and covered the pan for the onion to  sweat and soak up the spices. Now I had about 10 mins.

I used the 10 minutes to  julienne 2 small carrots and 1 green pepper.  I added the vegetables to the onion mixture with a few more drops of water.

The next 10 minutes was spent grating a small piece of ginger and chopping 4 cloves of garlic. I added the ginger and the garlic to the mixture and turned up the heat for a couple of minutes. The onion had completely softened by this time and the vegetables were starting to soften.

It was time to add the cooked aduki beans. I had  cooked about 1/2 cup of dried aduki beans earlier in the week using residual heat in my electric hob oven. The beans were soft but not overcooked.

Along with the aduki beans I added half a tin of chopped tomato. It is important to fry the tomatoes well before adding water. So I sauted the mixture for a further 10 mins .

I then added about 1/2 cup of water just enough to cover it up. Time to add salt and pepper.

I left the curry to simmer for further 10 mins before adding 2 tbsp of organic dessicated coconut. I cooked it for a further 5 mins before allowing to rest.

We had it with plain white rice. A delicious vegetarian meal for a cold winter night.