Spicy Green Beans with Saucy Red Onions

Name: Spicy Green Beans with Saucy Red Onions (Vengayam Avarai)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 2 tablespoons canola oil; 1 small red onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced; 1 tablespoon skinned split black lentils (cream-colored in this form, urad dal), picked over for stones; 2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed, sliced diagonally into ½-inch pieces (do not remove the seeds); ½ teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds, ground; ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds, ground; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; 1 pound green beans, trimmed and sliced diagonally into ½-inch lengths; 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; 10 to 12 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves (see Tips); 1 tablespoon rice flour

Vengayam Avarai

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Watch out when you dive into this curry, because hidden among those greens beans are hot chiles, sliced the same way as the beans. The rice flour, in addition to thickening the sauce, mellows out the chiles’ pungency with its starchy presence.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds

Asia
India
Side dish
Main course
Stew
Gluten-free
Vegan
Spicy

Method

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover the skillet, and cook until the seeds have stopped popping (not unlike popcorn), about 30 seconds. Add the lentils and stir-fry until they turn golden brown, 15 to 20 seconds. Immediately add the onion, chiles, ground mustard, fenugreek seeds, and turmeric. Stir-fry until the spices are frag