Chettinad Lima Beans

Asha's beautiful post about RCI-Chettinad inspired me to make something authentic. Since then I was searching for one eggplant recipe that my classmate T used to bring. It had an aroma of fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds & probably fried eggplant slices. Anyway, I was almost going to give up about Chettinadu veggie food but came across Julie Sahani's "Indian Regional Classics" at our local library & it had Chettinad Lima beans. I hurriedly noted down the recipe and tried it. I changed it a little to suit our taste.

Chettinad Lima Beans
Inspired by Julie Sahni's Indian Regional Classics
Ingredients
16 oz baby lima beans, frozen
salt to taste
1 cup water

Grind to a smooth paste
1/4 cup coconut
1 green chili
1" ginger
1/2 tsp fennel seeds/badishep/saunf/variyali
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
7-9 almonds (the original recipe had cashews)

Tempering
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1" cinnamon
4 cloves
1 small onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Garnish
2 tbsp cilantro/coriander leaves, chopped

Method
1. Heat oil. Add all the spices and powders. Saute. Add onion. Saute till soft.
2. add tomato and saute for 2 minutes.
3. Now add ground coconut paste. Saute for 5 minutes.
4. Add lima beans, water, salt. Bring to boil.
5. Cover and let it cook on a medium flame for 10 minutes.
6. Garnish with cilantro.

Note -
1. I let the water evaporate to serve it with chapati. If desired, you can add more water to give curry like consistency.
2. The original recipe had cashews in the ground paste as well as whole cashews along with lima beans in the curry.

3. I added just one chili so my little one can eat. More chilies can be added depending on the desired spice level.
4. I served with a lemon wedge.

Credits
Julie Sahni

Chettinad Lima Beans are going to celebrate RCI - Chettinad at Srimathi's Few Minutes Wonder.

RCI event is started by Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine.