Rajmah: Healthy Comfort Food

I love rajmah.  What is it?  Curried kidney beans, or "Indian Chili," as I like to think of it.  It is hearty, healthy, super inexpensive, and perhaps best of all, crazy easy to make.  And by crazy easy, I mean you can get this prepped and in your crock pot while your morning pot of coffee is brewing.

This recipe is adapted from The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla.  I love this book.  I toned down the heat (spice) for this recipe.  I liked it as written, but had to add yogurt or sour cream to eat it.  Also, I like to share the food I make with my little boy, and I don't really want to burn his face off.  I also adjusted a few ingredients and the preparation to speed things up a little more.

Here is what you need:

• 1 pound dried red kidney beans, picked through and washed
• 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 two-inch piece of ginger, peeled
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 serrano chile, stem removed
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 8 cups of water, broth, or stock

Put your clean beans in your crock pot.

Get your vegetation ready, preferably while a toddler tries to climb up your leg.  He probably needs something, like breakfast, or a tissue.

Next up, put your vegetation in your food processor, and pulse until it is finely chopped, but not yet a puree.  I used a red onion, because that is what I had in the cupboard.  Use what you want.  Also, be cautious when opening your food processor.  It sort of feels like you've been maced if you put your face too close to the work bowl when you open this bugger up.

Add your processed vegetation to the crock pot.  (See, it's easy!)

Try and fail to distract the little boy who keeps trying to climb up your pant leg with some banana slices.  I wonder if he's trying to booby trap my chair?

Assemble your spices.  If you are worried about this dish being too spicy for you, cut back on the cayenne pepper.  I feed this dish to my one-year-old, though, so take that into account.

Toss the spices into the crock pot, and add the eight cups of liquid and the can of tomatoes (un-drained).  Stir it up, lid it up, and set it to high.  Dinner will be ready in ten to eleven hours.  Oh, and I know it looks like pond scum now, but I promise it will be tasty!

Eleven hours later:  much better!  Mash up some of the beans to thicken things up.  You can either spoon some out to puree in a blender, use an immersion blender, or do what I do and just smoosh some beans against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon.  Serve over rice or with bread, or just eat it with a spoon.  Enjoy!