Black Eyed Peas Indian Recipe

September 16, 2016

This curried vegetarian black-eyed peas recipe is an easy to prepare, lightly-spiced mild coconut curry that's great for people who want a creamy curry without the hot spice usually found in Indian curries. Black-eyed peas are a quick cooking bean which means that you can have this dish on the table in less than an hour when cooking the beans from dry, or in about 20 minutes when using canned beans.

My love of hot and spicy foods is certainly no secret. I love, love, love spicy Thai coconut curries like this vegetable green curry and this vegan red curry , and I pretty much can't eat fries without Tabasco sauce anymore.

But I'm not always in the mood to sweat it out at the dinner table, especially in the stiflingly humid Spanish summertime, and not everyone shares my love of spice.

So this curried vegetarian black-eyed peas recipe is for you, mild curry lovers! The coconut milk not only makes this curry super creamy, it also tones down the heat of the chili powder and compliments the mix of warming spices well.

The other great thing about this recipe is that you should be able to find all the spices and ingredients you need at your local supermarket. Nothing too exotic here.

Black-eyed peas are a great bean to cook up during the week or any day you're short on time. I learned recently that contrary to popular belief they don't need to be pre-soaked and can be cooked from dry much faster than other bean varieties.

I've used them before to make this amazing smoky Cajun-style black-eyed peas recipe (it's really seriously smoky and flavourful!) and I love their earthy flavour that's so different from other beans. Of course if you don't have black-eyed peas you can use this coconut curry sauce recipe with any other kind of bean and it will be equally delicious!

Ingredients

1 cup dried black-eyed peas (2 ½ cups cooked)
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garam masala (see note below)
1 tablespoon coriander powder
3 tomatoes, diced
1 cup coconut milk
Salt, to taste
A bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Rinse and pick through the black-eyed peas. Put them in a pot and cover with water and add salt to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until the beans are soft, 30-45 minutes. Drain.
While the beans are cooking, prepare the coconut curry sauce. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and fry, stirring, for 20 – 30 seconds or until the seeds are fragrant and begin to crackle.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion. Fry until transparent then add the garlic and ginger and fry until soft. Add all the spice powders and fry, stirring, for about a minute or until they release their aroma.
Add the tomato and raise heat to medium-high. Simmer, stirring occasionally and crushing the tomatoes with the back of your spoon until you get a thick sauce. Add the black-eyed peas, coconut milk and salt to taste. Simmer for a couple of minutes or until the sauce reaches the consistency that you like.
Serve with fresh chopped cilantro sprinkled on top and basmati rice.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 336 Total Fat: 17g Saturated Fat: 11g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 5g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 215mg Carbohydrates: 38g Fiber: 8g Sugar: 7g Protein: 13g

Note: Packaged garam malasa mixes are often too spicy and full of cheap fillers rather than fragrant spices. I make my own garam masala, which is really easy and good to have on hand in your spice rack. I don't put any chili powder in my garam masala so if yours has chili, your dish will be spicier than mine.

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