This dish hails from the Northern region of India and is the perfect combination of rice and kidney beans
Rajma Chawal literally means beans and rice. ‘Rajma’ is the Hindi word for ‘kidney beans’ and ‘Chawal’ means ‘rice’. Rajma Chawal is very popular in the northern states of India, especially in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. It is also a part of the staple diet in the bordering countries of Nepal and Pakistan.
Rajma Chawal is traditionally vegetarian. In India, a vegetarian dish can include dairy products such as milk and butter, but cannot include any other animal products, not even eggs. Rajma Chawal is traditionally made with ghee aka clarified butter. Ghee is considered to be a healthy way to warm up your body in the cold winters witnessed in North India. You can also garnish it with a dollop of cream, although it tastes as good without cream as it does with cream. We at TVK made it with ghee, but if you substitute it with any neutral oil such as sunflower oil, you can make it vegan. That’s the beauty of most Indian vegetarian dishes — they can easily be made vegan. If you cannot find ghee at your local store and you don’t want to make it vegan, you can easily substitute with butter. But do remember to adjust the salt if you are using salted butter. Since this dish has gravy, it is easy to mix in salt later as well.
This recipe is part of our Rice and Beans series, which also includes Baião de Dois from Brazil and Kuru Fasulye from Turkey.
Do try out the Rajma Chawal recipe below and let us know how it turns out in the comments!
Rajma Chawal recipe
Ingredients:
300 grams soaked kidney beans (if the beans are not tinned/canned/frozen, then soak them for around 8 hours before you start cooking)
300 grams tomato puree
100 grams white rice
1 chopped onion
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
3/4 tsp garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp ginger paste
2 tsps ghee (neutral oil if you want to make it vegan)
1 litre water
Method:
Rinse the kidney beans twice. Drain. Set aside.
In a large pan, heat the ghee (or butter or oil). Add the chopped onions and sauté until it begins to change colour and turn brown.
Add the ginger and garlic pastes. Then add the turmeric powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Sauté all of them. If it gets too hot or you feel things may burn, add a few teaspoons of water.
Add the kidney beans along with about 700 ml of water. Cover the pan with a lid and let the beans cook for about 30-45 minutes on medium flame (depending on your stove).
In another pan, add the rice and about 300 ml of water (if you are using an instant pot or rice cooker, add water according to the instructions on the machine). Let the rice cook for around 10-15 minutes. Turn off the stove.
When the beans are cooked and the water has almost evaporated, open the lid and add the tomato puree. Add salt and mix. Let the entire mixture come to a boil (in about 5 minutes). Turn off the stove.
Serve the rice and the beans together. Enjoy it warm!
The Vegetarians' Kitchen 