The bean stock

FIELD BEANS CAN BE A NUTRITIOUS ADDITION TO LEGUMES IN THE KITCHEN

- VIBHA VARSHNEY

AS THE lockdown kept extending, I was glad I had a stock of food ingredients collected from across the country to experiment with and add variety to the plate. During a trip to Nagpur, Maharashtra, a couple of years ago, I had purchased a few unfamiliar legumes. Their local names were printed on the packets. One had shiny, brown seeds of a legume called kadve val while another, called dal val, had cream coloured split seeds.

Kadve val is the seed of Dolichos lablab while dal val is the split form of the same legume. Popularly called field beans, this is a multipurpose crop grown across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. “Kadve val has a distinct texture and smell,” says Saee Koranne-Khandekar whose recent book, Pangat, a Feast: Food and Lore from Marathi Kitchens, has a few recipes for this legume. She has shared a vegetable dish, padwal dalimbi, with Down To Earth (see recipe).

The split form, which is also called vaalachi dal, is often used as a substitute for sprouted legume in preparing usal, a thick curry made from the sprouts, onions, spices and curry leaves. It can also be cooked with gourd or used to prepare aamti (spicy, sweet and sour dal).

The legume is quite common in the Konkan region, says Koranne-Khandekar. Konkani Muslims use these seeds and coconut milk to prepare a curry known as hiddi. Members of the Bene Israeli community observe Birdyaancha Roja to mark the saving of Jews from persecution and consume a few raw beans to break the fast, following it up with a dish called birde which also uses the legume.