Spiced Dal featuring Sangre de Toro Beans

 This recipe features Sangre de Toro, a rare and regional burgundy bean from Primary Beans.  We met Lesley, one of the female owners of Primary Bean during a Good Food Mercantile in SFO last year. She was super passionate about beans and sharing her knowledge of beans.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Sangre de Toro Beans

¼ cup of yellow mung beans

1/3 cup coconut milk or milk alternative

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp OMG! Sambal (heaped)

2 garlic clove, minced

1 large knob of ginger, minced

 Neutral oil like non-gmo canola

 Ghee is optional

 Method

Bean prep the day before: I like to cook beans in a slow cooker in the evening before. It is something an Indian auntie at the market taught me.  Wash the beans (in this case just the Sangre). Add the beans, half the minced garlic and ginger and about 2 cups of water into the slow cooker. Turn the setting to low and let it cook overnight.  The next day, the beans will be nicely soft and ready for you to cook with.  Drain it but don’t throw the bean water away, it is like pasta water, it has a lot of flavor and can be useful to add back to the next part of the cooking process.

Tip: you can keep the slow cooker cooked beans and the water for about 2-3 days in fridge until you are ready to use them.

 The next day, in a medium size pot, heat about 3 tbsp of oil over medium heat.  Add the minced garlic, ginger, OMG! Sambal and turmeric into the pot, stir to let the spices bloom (ie you can start smelling the mixture). You want to stir it until it feels slightly sticky.  When it does, add the coconut milk to de-glaze the pan.  Add the Sangre and mung beans into the pot, lower the heat and stir.  If it starts looking sticky, add a bit of the bean water to the mixture.  Cook until the mung beans are soft. Add a ½ tbsp of ghee and salt to taste. The whole cooking process should about 20 minutes or so.  Garnish with cilantro. Plate up and serve with rice. Enjoy!