In 2019, Saptarshi and I made a conscious effort to eat less meat. While initially it was a challenge given that we had meat as a main for every meal, it’s become easier every month (see vegetarian recipes here). I have especially grown to rely on legumes as a staple (thank you dal!), and developed a special affection for white beans. My go-to weeknight meal was white bean pasta. I had never really seen white beans incorporated in Pakistani recipes till I found a lobia masala recipe in the Salt’n Pepper Village Cookbook. Being the food nerd that I am, I got excited and immediately got round to testing and tweaking the recipe for the blog.
This lobia masala is an incredibly easy recipe that is perfect for busy (or lazy) weeknights. I find white beans to be quite beautiful and flavorful in their own right and wanted to avoid over-cooking or over-spicing them. So in this recipe adaptation, I pared down the spices significantly to give them some breathing room. I used canned cannellini beans in this recipe but you can use any variety. I LOVE having them with toast but you can also enjoy them with naan or roti/chapati.
Lobia Masala (White Beans with Tomatoes)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp canola/sunflower/vegetable oil
- 1 small yellow onion thinly sliced in half rings
- 2 roma tomatoes roughly chopped
- ½ tsp salt or to taste
- ½ tsp red chili flakes
- ½ tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp crushed ginger and garlic
- 1 15 oz can white beans
- Cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in saucepan. Add chopped onion and fry on medium-low heat till evenly brown for about 10 minutes.
- Add crushed ginger and garlic and fry for roughly one minute.
- Add coriander powder and red chili flakes, and fry for another minute.
- Add chopped tomatoes and fry on medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Add white beans and fry for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat, place in serving bowl and garnish with cilantro and diced chili.
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