French Beans Usili Recipe

It’s a classic south Indian styled French beans side dish preparation. Ever since I’ve started living in Mangalore, I never stopped trying out my culinary experiences with those vast yet distinctive southern delicacies. Usili is a very light and healthy preparation that needs no major kitchen props making it a super easy yet delicious dry dish. Here’s the whole story goes:

French Beans Usili 

Ingredients needed:

French Beans: 15-20 cut in small pieces;
Toor Daal (Sambar Daal): ¾ cup, soaked for an hour, just use warm water;
Red Chilies: 2-3;
Asafetida (Hing): A Pinch, to get the flavor use Hing powder;
Oil: 2 tbs;
Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp;
Dry Red Chili: 1;
Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp;
Salt: To Taste;
Curry Leaves: A generous handful of

How To:

Wash and cut the beans in small pieces; boil water in a deep pan and put the beans in water and boil for 5-7 minutes adding some salt.
Now drip out the water from the daal and coarsely grind with 2-3 red chilies. Be careful about using water as little as possible, otherwise it would make a batter or coarse paste.
Now heat up 1 tbs oil in a large skillet. Fry the coarse dal mixture adding some salt and turmeric powder; keep it in mind that frying this mixture properly would take 9-10 minutes, so be patient and keep stirring at an interval.
When the dal gets fried, add the boiled Beans into the pan and quickly fry for another 2-3 minutes. Now heat another tbs of oil in a smaller pan (seasoning or tadka pan will do) and put mustard seeds, red chilies, hing and curry leaves one by one. Let the seeds pop up, switch off the burner and put all the tadka in the daal Mixture.  Check seasoning and serve with Rice, Chapati, Raita or any type of Dosa.

~post by Jinia Roy