Rice and black-eyed peas with Swiss chard - Lobhia saag pulao

 

This recipe is very freely adapted from one of Vegan Richa’s. For a ‘real’ curry, there are no weird and wonderful spices and there aren’t too many of them, either, which made me feel that the recipe might be tackled by a cook who likes curry, but doesn’t want to faff around too much. It’s a one-pot meal and Swiss chard, if bought very fresh and looked after with loving care, will last for 4 or 5 days, which will take you well into a thousand-mile passage. Spinach would also go very well in this recipe.

 

Black-eyed peas are quite popular in Indian cuisine and have the advantage that they don’t need soaking. They also need the same time to cook as brown basmati rice, so make a perfect match. This is a very pleasant curry, even following my method rather than making it the ‘right way’, which involves a blender and thus some awkward washing up.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil or ghee

1 medium onion, sliced

1 green chilli pepper, chopped

1 tsp ginger paste or chopped ginger

3 cloves garlic, diced

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cardamom (seeds if you don’t have ground)

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

3 or 4 large leaves of Swiss chard

1/2 cup brown basmati rice

1/2 cup dried black-eyed peas

2½ cups water

salt

1/2 tsp kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves

Method:

• Heat the oil in the pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the onion, chilli, ginger and garlic, sprinkle over the salt and mix it in.
• Cook until the onion is translucent.
• Now add the garam masala, cinnamon, and cardamom, lower the heat and cook until the spices smell fragrant.
• Stir in the chopped tomatoes and cook for several minutes until they become juicy. Loosely cover and add a tablespoon of water if the mix seems to be getting to dry: it very much depends on your tomatoes.
• In the meantime, dice the chard. Don’t worry that there won’t be any texture after it has been cooked: the original recipe calls for it to be blended.
• Now add the black-eyed peas to the pressure cooker, together with the rice and the water.
• Put on the lid, bring up to pressure and cook for 10 minutes, let the pressure reduce naturally.
• Taste the mixture: you will probably need more salt. If it seems very wet, let it simmer over a low heat until some of the water evaporates. The amount of moisture will depend on both the tomatoes and the greens.
• Add the dried fenugreek, if you’re using it.
• Serve hot, maybe with roti if you’re really hungry!

Note:

• If you are using spinach, you would want ‘ bunch’. It is usually sold in an unspecified amount, but as it’s not filling and it shrinks away to nothing once you heat it, unless the bunch looks enormous you’re unlikely to have too much.

Variation:

• Try other greens, such as mustard greens or spring cabbage.
• Whole lentils would also work with this recipe, as would mung beans.
• Long grain brown rice should also cook satisfactorily in the same time as the black-eyed beans. If yours seems to take a very long time, I suggest adding it with the water and cooking it for a few minutes, letting the pressure reduce, then adding the beans and spinach to ensure that the rice is cooked through without cooking the beans to a mush.

 

You will find many more rice recipes here

Minestrone soup

The name ‘Minestrone’ has become something of a catch-all for a tomato, vegetable and pasta soup. I don’t pretend that the following version is any more authentic than most, but it certainly is attractive and full of flavour. I usually use black-eyed peas, because they enrich the colour of the soup, but it’s equally good made with whole lentils or chick pea(s).

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

 

Serves 4 to 6 as a starter, 2 for a main course

 

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
1 carrot
1 stick celery OR 1 tsp celery seed
4 cups water
1/4 cup black-eyed peas
1 cup chopped cabbage
a piece of Pamesan cheese rind

14 oz/400 g tin of chopped tomatoes

2 tsp Annie's Mixed Herbs

about 20 lengths of spaghetti

salt and pepper

 Parmesan cheese

Method:

• Heat the olive oil in the pressure cooker.
• Chop the onions and garlic and cook over a fairly high heat until they’re starting to brown. 
• While this is happening, dice the carrot and the celery (seed). Add to the other vegetables. 
• Pour in the water, add the black-eyed peas and bring to the boil. Pressure cook for 10 minutes. Reduce pressure gradually. 
• When you can safely remove the lid, add the chopped cabbage to the pan. Return it to the flame. If you’re using the Parmesan cheese rind, cut this into small dice and add. 
• Empty the tomatoes into the pan and mix them in.
•  Now add the herbs and stir thoroughly. 
• When the soup is boiling once more, lower the heat to a simmer, break the spaghetti into 25 mm (1 in) lengths and add this. Stir to separate the pieces of pasta.
• Add salt and pepper. Minestrone responds well to ½ tsp of cracked black pepper. Taste after a couple of minutes to see if it needs more salt.
• Cook until the spaghetti has softened – you can bring it back up to pressure for 3 minutes if you wish.
• Serve with chunks of bread and, if you have it, plenty of Parmesan cheese.

Variations:

• Use cannellini beans instead of the black-eyed beans. These will need soaking first. Or you could use a can.
• Replace the cabbage with kale
• Add 2 tbsps of freeze-dried peas
• Add chopped pepper to taste
• Replace the celery with 1 tsp celery seed
• Use chopped tomatoes in purée for a thicker soup.
• Add 1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
  

Note:

• Vegans can use home-made vegan "Parmesan" cheese!