everyday subzi: guar moongphali ki sookhi subzi | cluster beans and peanuts stir fry

Guar is Cluster beans, also called as guar phali in Hindi. The beans are a developed taste for many but those who like this vegetable, just love it. A lot depends on how you choose the beans when buying as guar can get really hard and fibrous when you pick up mature or stale beans from the market. Look out for slender beans that are tender to touch and shiny in appearance. Guar phali can cooked in many ways, you can stir fry them with chilly garlic paste to make lasuni bhujia or cook them with eggplants with loads of garlic and some hing. A dry curry of guar beans made using a sesame powder is one of our favourite too. Guar dhokli I discovered later and became a favourite too.

Now you know how much I love cluster beans. You can imagine how happy I was to find a quicker way to cook this vegetable and that too when the husband reported that he liked the subzi in his lunch box. This is a sookhi subzi that borders on the territory of a 'stir fry salad', I found it one day on Anita's facebook timeline when she was cooking it and posted a picture. I was so curious I cooked (actually tossed) this curry the very next day and loved it. She later posted this recipe on her blog as well.

I have cooked this one a few times since then, once I added a little shallow fried dry shrimp too, like in this long beans recipe with sambal belacan. But I realised I liked it with peanuts and garlic only, with varying degrees of chilly heat depending on my mood and the summer heat we are living in.

Oh yes, and the recipe involved boiling the chopped guar and mixing it with a coarse powder/paste of the roasted peanuts, garlic and red chillies. Just that.

ingredients

chopped guar (tender cluster beans) 2 cups
roasted peanuts 1/2 cup (or as per taste)
garlic cloves 5-6 (or more if you like)
dry red chillies 3-4 (adjustable)
sesame oil (or any oil you like) 1 tsp
salt 1 tsp

procedure

Add the salt to a cup of water and bring to boil. Dunk the chopped guar in the boiling water and wait till they change colour, it takes about 4-5 minutes for tender guar. Keep the lid on while cooking. Drain and keep aside.

Lightly fry the garlic and chilly in hot oil. Take them out and pound them along with roasted peanuts in a mortar and pestle or in mixie jar, make sure the paste is really coarse.

Mix the paste with boiled guar and serve as desired.

We loved it mixed with plain boiled rice. Peanuts were a bit generous in my recipe so I decided that this will be our simplified balanced meal.

When the peanuts are lesser, I like to add a boiled egg to my plate.

Try this recipe at least once even if you don't like guar. I am sure it will convert you for life. Guar mugphali ki subzi is here to stay in my kitchen for sure.

everyday subzi | guar or cluster beans: two stir fries and a wonderful sesame curry paste

I never knew that the slightly bitter tasting gummy textured Guar can be a favorite of so many people.

love these beans called cluster beans in English but never thought of posting a recipe because not many people like this vegetable. That concept of mine was proved wrong when I posted Guar dhokli ki subzi, as I received many requests for posting more recipes of these beans. Here I am with two simple stir fries I love, cooked with guar phali or cluster beans..

 guar ki lasuni bhujia... 

This is the simplest of all stir fries especially if I use the green chilly and garlic paste stored in my freezer . I make this lasooni bhujia with many vegetables like raw plantains, parval (pointed guard), tendli or kundru (ivy guard), bhindi (okra), arbi (colocasia) or yams, jack-fruit or even potatoes. The green chilies and garlic paste comes handy for so many things, it is always there in my freezer and I just scoop out required quantity and a yummy bhujia for our daal chawal is ready.

For Guar you need to string the beans. Good quality guar is plump and soft and strings easily. Then it is held in a bunch, rolled together and chopped in small bits ......

For the lasooni bhujia you need 
(for 4-5 servings as a side dish)

250 gm of guar chopped
1 tbsp of mustard oil
1 tbsp of green chllies and garlic paste
1 tsp fenugreek seeds for tempering (I like it, can be replaced with cumin seeds or nigella seeds as per choice)
turmeric powder 1 tsp
salt to taste

To proceed ... heat mustard oil in a kadai or pan, throw in the tempering spice of your choice , wait till it splutters and them throw in the chopped guar. Stir fry adding salt and turmeric till the guar becomes shiny and a bit soft (not mushy). Add the green chilly garlic paste and a tbsp of water if the mixture is getting too dry. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes, stir to mix and cook uncovered till nice aroma of garlic wafts through.

Adding a little water with the paste and then covering the pan to cook is crucial in this simple recipe as the flavors of garlic and chillies are absorbed well by the vegetable and you do not get sneezing bout due to frying/burning chillies. This is particularly crucial if you are frying raw plantains or potatoes or any kind of yams this way ...


guar in sesame spice mix...

This spice mix has been a hit in my house since I developed it after making a healthier version of baghara baingan and then made a cabbage stir fry with it. It has been tried by many of my blogger and non blogger friends and has become a favorite in no time. I have myself used this spice mix to make many vegetables yummy  for family and guests and every time it has been a topic of conversation....

The sesame spice mix requires ....
sesame seeds 5gm
dry grated coconut 2 tbsp(25-3gm)
dry red chillies 8-10 nos. (to taste)
peanuts 50 gm 

Dry roast everything separately and then grind together when cooled. Some people have tried it without roasting and stir frying the vegetables after adding it for a few more minutes, but I strongly recommend dry roasting the seeds before making the powder (the powder will be a crumbly pasty one due to the oil content of the ingredients) ....it adds a whole lot of flavor believe me..... the paste/powder keeps well at room temperature for a fortnight and for six months in the fridge.

requirements for the guar with sesame curry paste ...

(for 4-5 servings as side dish)

Guar chopped 250 gm
potatoes chopped in small bits 1 no.
tomatoes chopped in small cubes 1 no.
cumin seeds 1 tsp
ginger chopped fine 1 tbsp
sesame curry paste 2 tbsp (or as much you like it)
mustard oil 1 tbsp
salt to taste

preparation...

Heat oil in a kadai and throw in the cumin seeds and wait till they splutter. Add the chopped ginger first and then the chopped guar and potatoes at once with salt and stir to mix well Cover and cook till 3/4 done , add chopped tomatoes and mix well. Keep stirring and cooking till the tomatoes get mushy. Add the sesame curry paste and a tbsp (or more if you wish to have some gravy, use more sesame paste in that case) of water, mix well to coat the vegetables and it's ready. Take off heat and serve hot ......... A toasted sesame aroma will fill your kitchen and you suddenly feel hungry ....... believe me.

You may feel like adding a bit of tamarind extract or lemon juice, but here I like it with just the slight sourness of tomatoes. Adjust seasonings to your taste that's it.

A garnish or toasted sesame seeds looks good but it does not enhance the taste.

The taste is in the sesame paste. Try it once and you will be hooked to it. I will post other vegetables cooked with the variations of this paste very soon. A bit of tempering or a bit of garnish, different cuts and different cooking techniques, all of these make difference in your finished curry or bhujia.....

cheers ....

everyday subzi: guar dhokli ki subzi | cluster beans curry with besan dumplings

There are a few unusual beans which my dad has actually conditioned all of us siblings to like. Guar  or cluster beans and bakla or fava beans are the ones which nobody seems to like but I do buy them whenever I get to see them in the market.

Guar is also known as guwar and this guar dhokli ki subzi is one of my favourite now.

Although  cook with these beans frequently, I have not posted any recipes apart from this one with bakla. We get good quality guar fali easily here in Delhi and I make many variations cooked with curds, with sesame, with garlic and green chillies etc. Still I keep looking for new recipes as Arvind does not like this vegetable much (only the sesame version he used to like earlier).

I asked for a gujrati style recipe from a fellow blogger Parita and she had posted this recipe of guar dhokri last year (I was pestering her so much). It's actually an easy and delicious recipe, made without any garlic and onion. The use of dhoklis, the chick pea dumplings in this curry makes it a keeper recipe. I made a few changes in the recipe to suit our taste, added ginger and tomato puree and the result was very very good, all the guar curries I used to make earlier were dryish in consistency, this one being a gravy curry was great with rice and chapati both.

ingredients...
for the curry..
guar beans stringed and chopped in 2 cm pieces 250 gm
asafoetida or hing 2 pinches 
cumin seeds 1 tsp
finely chopped ginger 1 tbsp
finely chopped green chillies 1 tsp
red chilly powder 1/2 tsp
coriander powder 1 tsp
cumin powder 1 tsp
black pepper powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
tomato puree 2 tbsp
salt to taste
green coriander chopped 1 tbsp for garnishing (i did not use this)
mustard oil 1.5 tbsp

for the dhokli...
besan or chick pea flour 1 cup
cumin , black pepper , and coriander powders 1 tsp each 
red chilly and turmeric powder 1/2 tsp each
soda bi carb 1/4 tsp
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

procedure...
  
Prepare the dhoklis first (I made them while stir frying the guar but if you cannot handle both the things together it is advisable to make the dhoklis ahead.

Mix all the ingredients for dhokli and add a little water to make a stiff dough, roll the dough with oiled hands into a sausage like roll and cut thin roundels with a knife.

These slices of dough can be shaped into round discs and kept aside, or this step can be done while working on the kadai.

Heat mustard oil in a kadai and throw in the crushed asafoetida (I use the crystallized resin form) or the powder. Add the cumin seeds and wait till they crackle, throw in the chopped green chillies and chopped ginger and wait for a couple of seconds..

Now put in all the chopped guar beans and stir fry on medium flame till they look a bit translucent..

Add all the powder spices and salt to taste and stir fry till the spices turn aromatic....takes about 4-5 minutes on low flame . If using more oil for cooking , this step can be done at high flame and takes about 2 minutes.

Add the tomato puree and keep stirring for a minute or two.

Add enough water (I added about 500 ml) and the prepared dhoklis. Let it boil vigorously, the dumplings fluff up immediately as they have soda bi carb in it. I added 2 crushed dhoklis as suggested by Parita to thicken the gravy.

Boil to reduce the gravy and garnish with chopped green coriander if using...

This guar dhokli ki subzi was great with rice as well as chapatis. The steps of the recipe look a little cumbersome but it's really easy as there is no onion garlic to peel and chop and there is no paste to be made.

Dhoklis (or gatte) can take some time but if you do it simultaneously it's really a quick recipe. The dhokli was a new addition for me, I make gatte ki subzi and thought it must be like gatte having the same ingredients, but it tastes different when it is cooked differently.

Dhoklis complemented very well with the guar and this gravy. Do try this recipe if you don't like guar and want to include it in your daily meals.

Cheers...