Rajma Chawal (Kidney Beans Rice)

Rajma Chawal (Kidney Beans Rice) is perfect for your kids lunch box. Rajma Chawal comes with rich carbohydrate and Protein. Rice is rich in carbohydrate and the Rajma (Kidney Beans) is rich in Protein. Make sure the rest of your kids lunch box contains plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. A small green salad and some seasonal fruit would be ideal.

Ingredients:

For Masala Bag:

* You can also add 1/2 teaspoon of whole black pepper in the masala bag. But I chose to add the coarse pepper powder to the recipe directly to enhance the flavor. 


Method:

1. Wash the rajma nicely and soak it water overnight or atleast for 12 hours. After 12 hours, or in the morning, the rajma has doubled its size. Drain the water and again add fresh water to cook the rajma. You can also buy a canned rajma which we can use it instantly without soaking. 


2. Next we need to prepare the masala bag. Take a thin and clean white cloth or a muslin cloth and add the masala bag ingredients and tie the cloth nicely. Add the masala bag to the rajma and cook it for 3-4 whistles in a pressure cooker


3. While the rajma is getting cooked in cooker, we could make the gravy ready. Finely chop the onions, tomatoes. Make thin slices of green chillies and keep it ready. Heat a pan and add oil or butter. Butter would add a nice flavor and traditional Punjabi style of cooking. But if you are health conscious, we can add cooking oil. When the butter or oil is hot enough, add fennel seeds and cumin seeds


4. When the cumin seeds starts to sputter, add onions and green chillies with a pinch of salt and saute the onions nicely in a medium flame. Add chopped ginger and saute it nicely


5. Also add turmeric powder, amachur powder, cumin-pepper coarse powder and coriander powder and mix well. Allow the onions and masalas to cook nicely in medium flame for atleat 5 minutes. When the onions are soft and nicely cooked with masalas add chopped tomatoes and add salt needed for the gravy and allow it to cook till the tomatoes are completely cooked and become mushy. 


6. Meanwhile, when we are able to release the pressure from the cooker, take out the rajma vessel and using a ladle or in hand squeeze the masala bag to extract all masalas to the cooked rajma. The cooked rajma still have more water which we can use it in the gravy. Do not discard the water. The water will add a nice color to the gravy. When the tomatoes are nicely cooked and mushy, add the cooked rajma along with the cooked water and mix well. Taste the gravy and adjust the salt.


7. Take out 1 tablespoon of cooked rajma and add it to the mixer. Grind the rajma in the mixer to a nice paste. This step is optional. The main purpose of this step is to get a slightly thicker gravy


8.  When the rajma gravy started to boil, add the ground rajma paste to the gravy and mix well. Add chopped coriander leaves and keep the flame in low and allow the rajma gravy to nicely cook and blend with the masalas for atleast 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you can see a nice color and taste to the gravy. You can again top it with a teaspoon of ghee for a nice aroma and flavor


9. The scrumptious rajma gravy is now ready. Serve the rajma gravy with nice steaming hot rice. We can mix the rajma with hot and fluffy rice and pack it in the lunch box for our kids!!! Yummy Rajma Chawal (Kidney Beans Rice) is now ready :-)

Rajma Chawal (Kidney Beans Rice)