Indian Green Beans Aloo Sabji
Homestyle, everyday indian green beans aloo or aloo beans sabji made with tender green beans, potatoes and basic indian spices. Makes for a delicous meal paired with dal, roti or rice.
Ingredients
- 300 g green beans
- 2 medium (~250g) potatoes I use yellow potatoes
- 4 tablespoon mustard oil or any cooking oil of choice
- 1 medium onion chopped (~½ cup heaped) I use red onion
- 1.5 teaspoon garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon besan gram flour, dry roasted
- 1 large tomato chopped, I use roma tomato
- 1 teaspoon salt divided, adjust to taste
Whole Spices
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 whole dry red chilies or ½ teaspoon red chili flakes, adjust to taste
Spice Powders
- ⅛ teaspoon hing asafoetida, skip if not available
- 1.25 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder (hot) adjust to taste
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ teaspoon amchoor dry mango powder(or use lemon juice instead), adjust to taste
Instructions
Prepare The Vegetables
- Wash and trim the ends of green beans. Take out the strings.Then cut them into 1-inch pieces.
- Peel the potatoes if you wish (I leave them unpeeled). Cut them into small cubes(about 1 inch).
- Finely chop the onion and tomatoes. Mince the garlic (or use garlic paste).
Make Aloo Green Beans
- In a large pan or kadhai, heat the mustard oil over medium heat until slightly smoky.
- Temper the hot oil with whole dried chilies, hing and cumin seeds. Let crackle.
- Add the chopped onions and sauté until they start turning golden brown. This takes about 5-6 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic paste and all spice powders(except garam masala and amchur). Add 1-2 tablespoon of water to make sure that the spices don't burn. Fry the garlic and spices for another 1-2 minutes until the raw smell disappears.
- Toss in the potato cubes in the masala and sprinkle salt. Since potatoes take longer to cook as compared to green beans, we are adding them earlier to get them started. Fry the potatoes for 1-2 minutes with masala, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Then add the chopped tomatoes and mix. Cover pan and let cook for 2-3 minutes until they soften and start to break down. You will see that masala becomes runny because of tomato juices. Don't dry out too much.
- Uncover and add the green beans, mix and sprinkle the roasted besan (if using). At this point, I add little water (about ? cup water) so that the sabzi isn't too dry. Taste and adjust the salt at this stage.
- Cover the pan again. Cook for another 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the green beans and potatoes are tender.Adjust time as needed.
- Once the vegetables are cooked through, sprinkle garam masala and amchur powder (or lemon juice) over the sabzi. Give it a final stir, switch off the stove. Let sit uncovered for few minutes to make sure that vegetables don't overcook.
- Serving - Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro leaves and serve hot with plain parathas, tawa roti, tandoori roti, or dal-chawal (rice). You can add a bowl of raita on side.
Video
Notes
- Adjust the spices to your taste. I suggest starting with less quantity and add more as you go, especially with the red chili powder and garam masala.
- If you don't want to use besan (I know its an extra step to dry roast it), mash a few cooked potato pieces using back of spoon to help thicken the sauce.
- I like to keep almost 1:1 proportion of green beans to potatoes in my sabzis. However, if you like more potatoes, reduce the green beans quantity and vice-versa. Make sure that the total quantity of vegetables remains as mentioned in the recipe card so that the seasonings are proper.
- Depending on quality of your green beans, adjust the time of cooking. They overcook pretty fast. Keep an eye on the cooking time to ensure the beans and potatoes are tender but not mushy. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking.
- You can use haricot verts or long beans instead of green beans.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!