French beans – light, crisp and not cooked to death
Most vegetables are overcooked in Indian households. This explains the aversion of many non vegetarian households towards vegetarian food. This dish of french beans has a few ingredients, not even the ‘mandatory’ ginger and garlic paste. French beans are sweet and have a nice buttery taste. You can even sauté them in a pan with salt, pepper and garlic and it makes a great accompaniment to dish.
For this dish, take the trouble to cut your french beans well. String them from the sides and with a sharp knife cut them diagonally. Vegetables look appealing when cut well.
French beans – 250 grams
Onions – two large, sliced
Tomatoes- two large chopped fine
Curry leaves – two sprigs
Green chillies – four, chopped
Mustard seeds – half teaspoon
Pepper powder – 3/4 teaspoon coarsely crushed
Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
Salt
Oil
In a pot heat some oil, roughly about four table spoons. Add the mustard seeds and let it crackle. Now add the curry leaves and green chillies and stir fry this for half a minute. Add the onions to this mixture giving it all a good mix. Allow the onions to fry till they are translucent. Now add the tomatoes and continue the cooking process for another minute. At this stage add the salt, turmeric and pepper powder. Stir well and constantly as the mixture tends to stick to the bottom of the pot.
Add the cut french beans and give this mixture a good stir ensuring they masala mixture has evenly been distributed among the French beans . At this stage drop the heat and cover the dish. Allow this to cook for one minute (look at your watch). Now remove the lid and stir the vegetable again and cover and leave for one minute to cook. Do this for the third time. In all you need to cook this for three minutes only if you use 250 grams of french beans. Turn off the gas and leave the lid on. The vegetables continue to cook in the heat that has already been generated in the pot. Serve within five minutes of cooking and avoid reheating this dish. The vegetable must be crunchy to the bite and not soggy.
Fr. Warner D'Souza is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Bombay. He has served in the parishes of St Michael's (Mahim), St Paul's (Dadar East), Our Lady of Mount Carmel, (Bandra), a ten year stint as priest-in-charge at St Jude Church (Malad East) and at present is the Parish Priest at St Stephen's Church (Cumballa Hill). He is also the Director of the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum and is the co-ordinator of the Committee for the Promotion and Preservation of the Artistic and Historic Patrimony of the Church.
Hi Fr Warner, just finished cooking french beans but have gowar that is yet to go on the stove. The same recipe could apply? Gowar isn’t sweet so I may just add a pinch of sugar. I cannot add salt in my cooking because of my BP – it’s high – but I usually cook two veggies together and the blended flavours really do take care of the taste. Today, I made a carrot and spinach combination because I had to use up both. Cheers!
Aah.. Agree about the “cooked to death” part and the aversion to veggies among most of our Catholics. Most people feel being vegetarian means eating food that tastes like a jaundiced patient’s meals.
I absolutely Luv the presentation and happy to b a vegetarian Catholic (ghaas-phus) as my friends call me😁.
Vegetables cooked right will appeal to the most hard-core non-vegetarian. (Ask my hubby😜)
Lovely and simple. And tasty. Perhaps a bit too spicy for me, but will tone down the number of chillies. Yes, I’ve always been told that the veggies should be cooked “till soft” and have received frowns if the vegetables don’t turn out that way, but I always thought that they tasted better when flash cooked almost. Thanks for this.
Fr. your recipes are superb, i try some when possible you are a great chef, enjoy your meals n keep posting many more recipes for all. God bless
I love French Beans. I enjoyed cooking & my family were happy eating. Win-win dish for me Fr. Thank you.
Rightly said Father. I always brutalize my veges while cooking 😢😢😢😢. I shall keep this in mind next while cooking veges.
Really, I did not know this. Never to overcook veges. Thank you for enlightening thru this recipe. 👍🙌
Hello Fr. Warner. Somehow french beans r always the last of the veggies to get out of my fridge. Most often as a combo with others or as a stir fry. Today I’m inspired to try yr recipe n cook them ahead of the other vegetables.
Waiting for the LD to end n buy us some ‘pots’ for cooking. Wondered why u used that word until I saw u literally using one! GB