Geetha’s Broad Bean Curry

Marc has been holding the fort at home while my siblings and I have been in the middle of South Africa’s Covid hotspot trying to help my dad fight the virus.

Granny Geets came to make some rotis and curry and Marc wrote down the recipe and took some pics:

Geetha’s Broad Bean Curry, Served with Spinach and Rotis.

Since I can remember I have only had fond memories of Geetha and her incredible cooking skills and tasty food. Her cooking style and recipes are great to use as a guide and one can tweak them as your tastes desire.

Geetha loves cooking and enjoying good food with friends and family and sharing her wealth of knowledge when it comes to the various flavours and health benefits that come with the food we eat, which makes one realize that food can be tasty as well as beneficial for your health. I was lucky enough to have Geetha take me through all the steps in preparing the above tasty dishes.

Hope you will enjoy the process and final product as much as I do!

Broad Bean Curry

Step 1 – Soaking the Beans

Take your broad beans or any similar kind of beans, we used white kidney beans, the packet kind, not canned, and place them in a slow cooker with water on high for about 5 hours. The water level above the beans should be about the height that the beans are underneath. Watch the water level and add more water to keep the water level fairly constant. 

Step 2.1 – Bean Pot

Sauté 1 large chopped onion in a pot in vegetable oil. Also add 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon cardamom, 3-4 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon (3-4cloves) crushed/minced garlic, 1 tablespoon crushed/minced ginger, 4 cinnamon sticks. Once onions are transparent add 4 large chopped onions/1 can tomatoes, 1 teaspoon masala (mild if you don’t want hot curry), 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional), 1 teaspoon crushed chillies (optional) 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon biryani mix, 1 teaspoon garam masala, 4 star anise, 3 diced potatoes, 1 diced sweet potatoes. Let this blend/mix/cook for a few minutes then add the soaked beans with its water to the pot, add salt and pepper. Bring to boil then let this simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally, until beans and potatoes are cooked through. During this time you can make the Rotis.

Step 2.2 – Spinach (start making with Bean Pot)

Sauté 1 large chopped onion in a pot in vegetable oil with 1 tablespoon crushed/minced garlic until onions are transparent. Chillies can be added here if required. Add 1 bunch chopped spinach and ½ chopped onion (optional extra garlic can also be added). Cook until spinach has reduced and is cooked to preference. Add salt and pepper to taste

Step 3 – The Rotis

Make an oil mixture: in a microwave proof bowel add 50g butter, 50g margarine, 50ml vegetable oil, put in the microwave till all melted.

In a large bowl put 4 cups cake flower, and a pinch of salt and 10 table spoons of the oil mixture, mix evenly with a spoon. Add 1.5 cups hot to boiling water to the bowel, mix with spoon until well mixed. The mixture should be of such a consistency that when kneading, there are no dry parts, and not wet enough to stick to your hands. Kneed for a short while, add small amounts of water or flour until the above consistency is met. 

Break the dough in half, the following steps to be repeated for each dough half. Roll the one half of the dough out to the width of a rolling pin and length so that the dough is roughly 0.5 cm thick. Brush a layer of oil mixture on the entire upper surface of the dough, then roll it up tightly like a bacon wheel. Cut into slightly larger than golf ball size slices, almost like bacon wheels, or cinnabons. Roughly flatten these golf ball sized dough balls and roll out into side plate sized disks that are about cardboard thickness. Use flour while rolling to avoid sticking of the dough to the rolling pin or rolling surface.

Once the dough plates are ready, toast them on a hot surface like a frying pan or hot plate, no need for oil as the dough is infused with the oil mixture. Bubbles will form fairly quickly, once this happens, turn over to toast the other side. Lightly brush the initial toasted side with the oil mixture, once the second side is toasted, quickly toast the oil brushed side one more time, and voila, delicious roti.

Serving notes

Add half cup chopped coriander just before serving and serve with coriander. Chillies can be served as a side dish. Star Anise, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and cardamom can be removed before serving. I prefer to leave them in, looks nice.

Enjoy!