Vengayam Avarai (Green Beans with Saucy Onions)

I have not been great at remembering to tweak our produce basket deliveries so far this year. This has resulted in us getting a bunch of "surprise" baskets on Wednesdays. Usually it's all the kind of stuff we'd be getting and eating anyway, but it has required some meal plan reworking to try to make sure it gets used before it goes off. My most recent blunder resulted in us getting a head of cabbage. Two weeks in a row. We used up one, but the second's been sitting in the crisper awaiting its turn.

After perusing the curry cookbook for a while, I decided to get some green beans and potatoes to do a nice, multi-veggie curry. Except then I "double-booked" the potatoes. So then I was left with both green beans and cabbage needing to be used up and no plan for them since I'd already cooked and eaten all the potato. This curry was my solution to the bean issue. (They were already getting toward the end of their shelf life, so they were by far the more urgent of the two.)

Vangayam Avarai

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp. skinned split black lentils (urad dal)
• 1 small red onion, halved and sliced
• 2 fresh green chilies, sliced diagonally into 1cm pieces
• 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. fenugreek seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 450g green beans, trimmed and sliced diagonally into 1cm pieces
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 12 fresh or frozen curry leaves
• 1 c. water
• 1 Tbsp. rice flour

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add mustard seeds, cover, and sizzle for 30-60 seconds.
3. Add lentils and cook for another 15-20 seconds.
4. Add the onion, chilies, ground mustard, fenugreek, and turmeric and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add green beans, salt, and curry leaves and cook for ~30 seconds.
6. Stir in water.
7. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes.
8. Sprinkle in rice flour, stir a few times, and remove from heat.