A nutritiously diverse, colourful tasty curry that’s quick, easy & cheap!
This white bean & potato curry pairs a nutritous protein rich bean with an array of colourful vegetables. Doing so, that achieves high scores accross most key nutrition metrics. It tastes pretty good, and is cheap and easy, what more could you want?
Choosing the right pairings that have an inner logic can be tricky.
The main tension in this recipe is between the potatoes and the white beans. Waxy potatoes that won’t fall apart are critical, and nice large beans that vie with the potatoes are too. Haricot beans would just be too small – and mixing cannelloni with butter beans adds a bit of interest. The other veggies play supporting roles as they should. If you have a quick look at the nutritional analysis it shows that the extras really do add nutritional value!
Using curry powder isn’t a sin if you use a good quality blend.
Some people get sniffy about using a curry powder, but seriously – have you got the time? Also there’s quite a few ingredients for each variation for that authentic taste – is your spice rack large enough? My take is that it’s better to concentrate on the individual veggies, and extra things like ginger and garlic, than trying to be ultra purist. At some point I intend to get round to doing individual spice mixes – but purely as an option. Some things are essential in the spice cupboard however – turmeric, corriander, cummin, cinnamon, and the basic herbs. You can’t make my scrambled tofu or tofu mayo without them. So make sure you have them – plus some generic curry powders to hand. Madras is a must, I would say, and a West Indian one is useful, but for Thai, or more exotic ones, spice mix every time.
Getting the veggies all cooked at the same time is an art…..
Of course it doesn’t always work out. The first time I made this, I put the peppers in too late and they were still a bit over crunchy when the other veggies were perfect. So make sure to put them in shortly after the onions. It’s important to note that the temperature of a thick sauce can be lower than the boiling point of plain water near the top. So some things take longer to cook – bear that in mind – that’s why steaming the potatoes is a good idea. This white bean & potato curry isn’t super gourmet style, but it’s a solid bit of easy to cook nutrition that won’t bust the bank! Cooking your own beans will make it even cheaper – did you realise home cooked organic beans are the same price as dodgy brands laced with insecticide? Other similar bean curries like this chickpea & peanut butter one are worth a go if you like this. Or there’s chilli bean casserole not a curry but loadsa beans! Or if you’re looking for a curry with even more protein, there’s my aubergine & tofu curry or this cauliflower & chickpea curry – both Indian style plus loads more……
White Bean & Potato Curry
Ingredients
Method
- Before you start, put a pan of water on to boil. It will boil whilst you chop or blitz the ginger and crush or blitz the garlic. Then add enough flaxseed or coconut oil to a sauteuse or similar pan on a lowish heat, and add the garlic and ginger whilst you quickly chop the onions
- Add the onions as soon as they're chopped.......
- Then immediately chop the red peppers and add to the mix.
- then wash and chop the potatoes and put on to steam in the now boiling water for 15 minutes, turn off the gas when the timer goes.
- Next wash and chop the green beans into 1/3s. and put to one side ready to add at the same time as the potatoes.
- You'll need to add a little extra oil and a small amount of water around now - this helps to prevent the onions & peppers mixture from burning and sticking.
- Now add all the curry spices and mix well. Continue to cook on a low heat until the aromas and flavours release - a few minutes. It's very important not to let them burn.
- meanwhile open the beans and drain them - keeping the juice. Now is a good time to put the brown rice on to cook. I reccomend long grain basmati for this type of dish. That means double the quantity of water for the volume of rice. allow 50g of rice for an average adult. It will take 25 minutes to cook once it comes to the boil. See the link for detailed information on cooking brown rice.
- Then add in the chopped tomatoes and some of the bean juice from the drained canned beans. It wasn't to be a moderately thick sauce - not pasty, but not super runny either. Add in the veg stock and soy sauce at this stage.
- add in the green beans and part cooked potatoes. They will need another 10 minutes minimum.
- after a few minutes add in the drained white beans
- the potatoes (and beans) will need at least ten minutes of extra cooking after they were added, so add in the spinach a few minutes from the end, and it will be nicely wilted down by the time the potatoes and green beans are cooked.
- you can also add in the oat cream at this stage along with the lime juice and mix in well as the spinach wilts down into the sauce.
