Bean Curry
I learned this recipe recently at one of my favourite Indian restaurants in Newcastle called Ury. The Keralan food that comes out of their kitchen is amazing! If you’re looking for a delicious vegetarian curry recipe, this is one you simply need to try.
It is really good served with chapattis or plain white rice. This might be a veggie curry but there is so much flavour and very little work to do.
In fact, it’s so good, I featured the recipe in my cookbook ‘The Curry Guy Veggie’. So please let me know what you think. Feedback very happily received.
Make the recipe your own
I like to use quite a few green chillies but the number of these is entirely dependent on how hot you like the bean curry. This also goes for the chilli powder, I like the bean curry to be hot but everyone has their own tastes regarding heat from chillies.
If you love this recipe for bean curry try these other similar recipes:
Spicy Runner Bean Wrap
Beef Keema with Black Beans
Beef and Pinto Bean Balti
Spicy Bean Cakes
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Keralan Black Eyed Bean Curry

Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut or rapeseed oil
- 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 20 fresh or frozen curry leaves
- 2 green chillies split lengthwise
- 2 onions – sliced and then cut into 2.5cm pieces
- 2.5cm (1 inch) ginger – peeled and julienned
- 6 cloves garlic – sliced
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 3 tomatoes – diced
- 600g cooked or tinned black eyed beans
- 200g plain yoghurt
- 4 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
Instructions
- Heat the oil over medium high heat in a wok or large frying pan. When hot, stir in the mustard seeds. They will begin to pop. When they do, stir in the fenugreek seeds and curry leaves and temper in the oil for about 30 seconds.
- Add the chopped onion and sliced green chillies and stir it all into the oil. You want to cook the onions for about 10 minutes until they are good and soft and lightly browned. Stir in the garlic and ginger.
- Sprinkle in the turmeric and chilli powder and add the diced tomatoes. Give it all a good stir and then add the black eyed beans.
- To finish, stir in the yoghurt one tablespoon at a time. In the photo I used my own homemade yoghurt but if using shop bought yoghurt, it is best to add it slowly so that it doesn't curdle.
- Serve immediately, garnished with coriander.
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Dr Cherry
Wednesday 12th of May 2021
Hi Dan,
I tried your black eyed bean Kerala curry. Pretty good but I don't see how a few chopped tomatoes could've produced the deep red of your photograph. Did you sneak in some tomato puree?
I didn't have curry leaves and had to wing it with a mix of black mustard seeds and white, but the main difference was I only had dried beans. After soaking them overnight I added them to the mix at stage three (and omitted the tomatoes at this point, obvs) so some hours rather than minutes later. I thought I'd kill everyone with the chilis (2 Scotch Bonnets) but the beans calmed it all down as did the home-made yoghurt (thanks for the tip that this is less likely to curdle)
Take Care,
Dan Toombs
Friday 14th of May 2021
Hi I didn't put any tomato puree in but the 3 tomatoes and the chilli powder along with the turmeric give the dish its vibrant colour. Thanks very much Dan