This spicy red kidney bean curry was created by Henrietta Dutton Williamson (Head Chef British Sailing Team) for my Eat Well—Be Well readers. This vegan dish provides a good amount of protein from the red kidney beans.
Should honey be added to this dish?
This recipe contains lots of fresh tomatoes. Nutritionally, this is great, but if home-grown tomatoes aren’t available, then supermarket fresh tomatoes may give a slight bitter taste to this dish. I’ve come to enjoy flavours that aren’t so sweet and I’d love for you to try it too just as it is. Traditionally, recipes like this, have had sugar or honey added to counteract any bitterness and to bring out the full flavour of the tomatoes. You know how strongly I feel about added sugar and for those trying to lose weight or who are fighting a candida overgrowth, adding sugar and honey isn’t helpful. So what to do?
First choose the naturally sweeter supermarket varieties, such as Piccolo or Pomodorino or Sundream. All home grown tomatoes tend to be sweeter than their supermarket counterparts, but varieties such as Rosada, Apero, Floridity or Sungold are particularly sweet.
This is a great dish and relatively quick and easy to make too. After the dish is cooked, taste it and decide whether it needs any sweetening. If weight-loss is not a primary concern, stir in half a teaspoon of raw honey. If on a candida diet, consider stirring in half a micro teaspoon of stevia extract.
Ingredients for red kidney bean curry
Makes 4 main-meal portions
- 12g (heaped teaspoon when solid) coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 600g tomatoes (see above) chopped very finely, grated on course side of the grater, or grated with food processor.
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 whole fresh red chillies, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped or crushed
- 25g (peeled weight) fresh ginger grated to a pulp
- pinch of sea or rock salt
- a good grinding of black pepper
- 500g of red kidney beans (2 x 400g tins/cartons drained, or cooked weight if beans were cooked from dried)
- Sprinkle of chopped, fresh coriander
Optional
15 curry leaves – add with the tomatoes
½ teaspoon raw honey — stir in after it is fully cooked.
Method
Place coconut oil in a medium sized pan and set over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, put in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the curry leaves and tomatoes. Stir, then add the turmeric, coriander, cumin, fresh chilli, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. Bring this to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes
Add the kidney beans to the pan. Bring back to a simmer, then cook uncovered on a very low heat for 20 minutes. Taste to check whether it need a slight sweetening (see note above).
Serve with brown or mixed rice, and a little diced cucumber and chopped red onion sprinkled with a little cider vinegar. If desired, you can also serve wheat-free flatbreads too.
Eat Well—Be Well 😊
Photography by Lara Jane Thorpe
