Green beans are available year-round here in frozen section, but they cannot compete with farm-fresh green beans of early summer time. Bright green and crisp textured, garden-fresh green beans still have that youth essence we cherish so much and I feel that this is the best time to cook/curry them.
The following is one of my favorite green bean recipes from maa amma (my mother). Relatively inexpensive, easy to prepare, green beans~sesame kura captures the spirit of traditional Andhra Summer menus.
Fresh Green Beans and Sesame Seeds
Recipe:
Fresh green beans: Ends removed and cut into half-inch length pieces, about 3 cups.
Onion – finely chopped, about half cup
2 Green chillies – finely chopped
Popu or tadka Ingredients:
½ tsp each- minced garlic, cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves
Sesame powder:
Powder together, ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds and ½ tsp each- chilli powder, salt and sugar
In a wide skillet, heat about a teaspoon of oil. Add and toast popu or tadka ingredients listed above. When mustard seeds start to splutter add the onion and saute to soft.
Add green beans and green chilli. Cook covered, until they soften little bit, for about five minutes. At this stage, sprinkle sesame powder and a pinch of turmeric. Mix thoroughly, cook uncovered, mixing in-between. (Have a taste and add salt if needed.) Take care not to over-cook and turn off the heat when there is still some crunch left in green beans. Serve warm with chapatis or with sorghum rotis.
I have also added a fistful of steam-cooked black chickpea sprouts from yesterday to this curry. Coated with sesame-spice powder and in combination of green beans, they tasted quite good.
Green Beans~Sesame Kura with Chapatis ~ Dinner Today
Notes:
Kura (Telugu) = Curry (English)
Nice photo of sesame seeds and a great recipe. Thanks for sharing with us!
Comment by Madhavi — June 5, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
Indira,
Looks yum, I like the addition of chickpeas.
I make it the same except that I add a little dry coconut at the end.
Picture looks beautiful.
Comment by Sreelu — June 5, 2007 @ 10:52 pm
I love green beans. Thanks for the recipe Indira, haven’t tried this version.
Comment by Deepika Saripalli — June 5, 2007 @ 10:56 pm
Your love for sesame seeds is endless 😉
Comment by Suganya — June 5, 2007 @ 11:31 pm
Visiting for the first time. A nice blog. Keep up the good work Indira garu.
Do visit my blog http://veggiesmagic.com/
Comment by Kalpana — June 5, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
aha, I was going to try something like this with green beans… now I have a recipe to follow! 🙂
Comment by Shammi — June 6, 2007 @ 5:55 am
Wow, I would never have thought of combining green beans with sesame! My family migrated from Kutchh to Mumbai a few generations ago. Over a century, we have incorporated many variations into our daily cooking — use of coconut in curries, crushed peanuts in cucumber salad, idli or dosai for brunch, etc. — sesame with green beans is still “exotic” to me. It just goes to show how tremendously diverse the Indian subcontinent is! Thanks for sharing — I will try this recipe soon!
Comment by Uma — June 6, 2007 @ 7:04 am
Indira, Beans palya looks delicious. Its very different from the way we make. I am gonna try this out soon and let you know. Love most of your recipes here.
Seema
Comment by seema — June 6, 2007 @ 11:07 am
cool 🙂
senagalu kuda vunnayi
luv ur shot as usual 😉
Comment by anusharaji — June 6, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
I think I will like this combination. It just seems like it would taste good, and it certainly looks good. 🙂
Comment by trupti — June 6, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Hi!
Green beans seasame-kura looks nice..nice combo for sambar sadham too..I think
Comment by Usha — June 6, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
Thanks all for your nice notes. Glad to hear that you like this recipe.
Comment by Indira — June 6, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
Tried the recipe and went to green bean heaven! Who knew Green beans could be so tanatalizing. Added 1/2 tsp of Besan towards the end and the nutty’ness’ of toasted sesame seeds and besan was just great. A family of four devored nearly 2 pounds of green been stirfry in one sitting! thanks for sharing.
Indira replies:
Hi Renu, glad to hear that you tried and liked this recipe. Thanks for letting me know.
Comment by renu — June 8, 2007 @ 8:10 am
Hi Indira,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. it is very unique. I have never tried anything with Sesame seeds, wish me luck.
Keep up the great work!
cheers
Aarthi
Comment by Aarthi — June 25, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Indira,
Your blog and recipes in here seems to always impress my family. I tried your beans sesame sabzi yesterday and it tasted awesome. Thanx again buddy.
Beans sesame doesn’t sound that much, but taste awesome, isn’t it? I am glad to hear that your family enjoyed it.
You are welcome Seema and thanks for letting me know.
– Indira
Comment by seema — July 24, 2007 @ 7:14 am
Hi Indiragaru,
Thanks for the great recipe I tried this being a bachelor in Mumbai. I have no telugu mess here to taste all our curries, so I usually check sites for recipes and experiment, but this was so pretty successful for me!
Thanks!
Pavan
Comment by Pavan — July 13, 2011 @ 2:22 pm