Tomato Lima Beans Curry (Tamata ukkera) by Usha Rao

Tomato Lima Beans Curry (Tamata ukkera) by Usha Rao

Total Time: 45 minutes
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

· Oil: 3 Tbsp
· Curry Leaves: 5 (opt)
· Fenugreek Powder: ¼ tsp (opt)
· Onions: 1 medium or ½ cup chopped
· Green Chillies: 4 small slit
· Ginger Garlic paste: 2 tsp
· Coriander powder: 2tsp
· Cumin Powder: ½ tsp
· Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
· Chili powder: 1 ½ tsp
· Salt to taste
· Lima Beans: ½ cup (frozen)
· Tomatoes: 3 medium / 1 lb sliced
· Dry roasted Nuvvulu / Til / Sesame seeds: 1 ½ - 2 Tbsp
· Green onions: 1 chopped (only the green part, white part can be add to ½ c onions) (opt)
· Garam masala powder: ¼ tsp
· Cilantro: chopped according to your liking

About the ingredients:

· All the powders used in this recipe are store bought. Only powder that I made at home is sesame powder. I will mention how I prepared it in the preparation section.
· I have a few ingredients listed as optional. I used all the above ingredients when preparing the dish, however, if you don't have the optional ingredients at home, you can skip using those.
· Egg eaters can substitute lima beans with 3 boiled eggs or use both lima beans and the eggs.
· Lima beans can also be substituted for frozen pigeon peas / kandhi ginjalu / toovar lilva, or frozen green channa, or green peas. People India can use fresh peas or channa. I personally don't like frozen green peas that we get in the USA. I find it too sweet.
· I used the green part of the green onion. The white part, I added it to the ½ c onion (excluding the white part).
· I like my food spicy. If you feel the curry would be spicy for your palate, please just the chillies and chilli powder to your liking.

Preparation:

Sesame seeds Powder:
- Heat water in a small container. You don't need boiling water. It should be hot.
- Add sesame seeds and soak for 2 minutes and drain the water.
- Heat a frying pan, add the drained sesame seeds and roast the seeds until they start crackling. Keep stirring until all the seeds dry and turn brownish. Make sure you don't burn the seeds.
- Remove from heat and let it cool. When the seeds cool, grind to fine powder.
- This is how I make my powder. If you wish, you can skip soaking the seeds in hot water.

Other preparation:
- Cut all the vegetables as required.

Cooking:

· In a pan heat oil, add curry leaves, fenugreek powder, onions and saute until onions are translucent.
· Add green chillies, ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute.
· Add coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric and stir.
· Add chili powder, salt, lima beans and mix well.
· Add tomatoes and stir well.
· Cover the pan and cook on medium high heat for approx. 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Temperature varies from cooking rage to rage. So, cook until tomatoes are cooked and are soft.
· When the tomatoes are cooked, remove the lid, add sesame powder, green onions, garam masala powder and cook for another 10 minutes on medium heat stirring frequently.
· Add cilantro, turn off the heat. Serve with hot rice.