Rajma Chawal or Kidney Beans with Rice.
Every culture has a comfort food. It seems for many guys here it is Rajma-Chawal or Kidney Beans and Rice. Every boy will swear that his mother makes the best Rajma. Even though I am not so fond of eating beans I decided to cook this particular lunch because even I admit I feel nostalgic for this sometimes. Rajma is so popular in India that you can find it on the menu of every small restaurant and even South-Indian chains like “Sagar-Ratna”.
Even though these beans take a long time to cook because they are not sold here in cans and even long longer to digest and they always end up giving me a lot of flatulence. I decided to make cumin rice along with the Rajma. Here in this part of India we do not eat rice everyday and whenever we do eat it, we sort of make a big deal out of it. Basmati is popular though expensive and sometimes people will make a pulao or at least make cumin rice when they are expecting guests. I also made a mixed raita for lunch. Raita is basically a yogurt side dish. I simply added fresh crushed mint leaves and some red chilli powder and black pepper to mine.
Indian people are usually not good at salads and as such the traditional Indian idea of a salad is just vegetables that are cut either finely or in big chunks and put together. The usual seasoning is just lime juice. However I kept up the tradition and did the same here.
