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Recipes with flat beans

4 recipes that use flat beans, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Shim bhorta, takes 25 minutes. It is most often cooked with coriander, turmeric and black mustard seeds.

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AnnakutWinter vegetable shaak

The day after Diwali, Pushtimarg havelis from Nathdwara to Ahmedabad build the annakut, literally a mountain of food, piled before Shrinathji to remember Krishna lifting Govardhan hill. Among dozens of sweets and farsan, there is always a shaak cooked from every vegetable of the new season, and many Gujarati and Rajasthani homes make their own version for the New Year meal. In the haveli tradition there is no onion or garlic, and many families leave out tomato too; the flavour comes from ajwain, ginger, green chilli, a little jaggery and lemon. It is lightly spiced, sweet-sour and full of different textures, from creamy raw banana to crunchy beans. Serve with puri, kadhi and rice. This version uses groundnut oil, so it is vegan; havelis cook it in ghee. Chef's tip: cut every vegetable to roughly the same size and add them in order of how long they take, so the shaak ends up tender, not mushy.

60 minIndianVegetarianVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bhogichi bhajiWinter vegetable and peanut stew

Bhogi, the day before Makar Sankranti, is a day of plenty in Maharashtra, and the lunch to match is this thick mixed bhaji made from everything the winter market offers: green chickpeas (harbhara), fresh field beans (pavta and ghevda), carrots, small brinjals, green peas, ber and sugarcane pieces in some homes. Peanuts and sesame are crushed into it for richness, and the spice is goda masala, the sweet-smoky Maharashtrian blend. It is served with bajra bhakri spread with white butter or sesame, a lump of jaggery and a piece of radish. The taste is earthy, slightly sweet and warming. The mistake is using too much water: it should be a thick, almost dry curry that coats the vegetables. Gluten-free if your goda masala has no wheat-cut asafoetida in it; check the label. Chef's tip: add a spoon of jaggery and a little tamarind at the end; that sweet-sour finish is what makes it taste like Bhogi.

50 minIndianVegetarianVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shim bhortaFlat bean mash

From November the bamboo trellises in courtyards across rural Bangladesh hang heavy with shim, the broad, flat hyacinth beans with purple or green edges, and they end up in curries, bhajis and, best of all, a smoky green bhorta. The beans are boiled until tender, then crushed with garlic fried golden in mustard oil, crisp dried chilli and raw onion into a coarse, nutty paste. It is one of the stars of a winter bhorta spread, served with hot rice, dal and a fried egg or fish for those who eat it. Leaving the strings on is the common slip; they stay tough and fibrous in the mash, so pull them off both edges first. Chef's tip: if the beans are mature with fat seeds inside, pop the seeds out, dry-roast them for a few minutes and pound them in for extra crunch.

25 minBangladeshiChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

LabraMixed vegetable curry

Labra is the vegetable dish of Durga Puja bhog: in community pandals across Bengal it is ladled out beside khichuri and a sweet tomato chutney to hundreds of people sitting in rows. It is a loose jumble of pumpkin, potato, aubergine, radish, sweet potato, raw banana and spinach stalks, cooked with panch phoron and ginger until some pieces melt and others hold. No onion or garlic goes in, because it is temple food. Chef's tip: add the vegetables in order of hardness, so the pumpkin goes soft and sweet while the radish and banana keep their shape.

50 minIndianCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with flat beans