Beanssa Upkari - Green Beans side dish

This is very simple upkari (side dish with simple seasoning) that my Mother prepared. I don't like food with too much of masala (spices) and I always loved these upkaris.

Those days we could get these tender green beans only after rains. Other seasons the beans sold in the market were too hard with strings. We had a small vegetable garden in the backyard and we cropped these beans few times :) Cooking time is just 1% of preparation time. Cutting these beans to small pieces is a bit of time consuming process, but you will be rewarded with the results. My Mother takes very less time because she always uses the AaddaLi, an equipment that is used by Konkanis to cut vegetables and grating coconut. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of an aaddaLi :(. If you are a chef and know how to use the knife fast ... khat ... khat ... then it is pretty simple :)


Ingredients :

1/1 lb Green beans
2 Green chilies (quantity depends on how beans you have and how hot your taste is)
Handful of grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon oil
Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method :

Wash the green beans and remove the ends. Cut into very small pieces (5mm length). The beans should be very tender otherwise the side dish will not taste good. Slit the green chilies lengthwise.

In a shallow pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, add slit green chilies, and curry leaves. When the mustard seeds start splattering add green beans. Saute for few minutes until the color of the green beans changes. Add salt and mix well. Add grated coconut and give a light stir. Close the lid of the pan. Cook covered on low heat for 2 mins. And the upkari is ready.

Do not add water anytime. Additing the water will dilute that very veggie taste and crispiness of the beans. The water in the beans itself and the salt is enough for cooking.

This goes well with boiled white rice and Daalitoy.

My sister has a variation to this ... she adds a bit of cumin powder and coriander powder. This makes the upkari much flavorful.