Recipe: Spicy Beef and Aubergine Rajma
Back in the days where I used to eat a more typically SAD diet, one of my favourite curries was a Rajma – a spicy, fragrant vegetarian dish made with kidney beans as the main ingredient. Even though beans are out of the question on the Paleo diet, I wanted to try and recreate the delicious, heady flavours of the Rajma I used to enjoy so often – and make it healthy too. After perfecting the spice blend, I opted to go for Beef as the protein of choice in this dish, as it adds much greater depth of flavour than the lifeless kidney beans ever did. I also included aubergine, as the texture somewhat mimics that of the beans. I think I've finally nailed the beanless Rajma – but I’ll let you be the judge of that!
- • 2 tsp coriander seeds
- • 2 tsp cumin seeds
- • 1 tbsp ghee / coconut oil
- • 2 onions, finely chopped
- • 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- • 5cm piece of ginger, peeled
- • 4 red chilli peppers, deseeded and chopped
- • 2 tsp garam masala
- • 1 tsp turmeric
- • Pinch of salt
- • 1 x 400g chopped tomatoes
- • 500g diced beef
- • 2 medium aubergines, diced
- • A good handful fresh coriander, chopped
- In a large cooking pot, toast the coriander and cumin seeds very lightly for roughly 2 minutes. Grind to a powder, then set aside.
- Raise the heat of the pot to medium, and add the ghee / coconut oil. Fry the onions for around 5 minutes, until softened.
- Meanwhile, in a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic cloves with the ginger and chilli to make a paste. Add a touch of olive oil if needed. Add this to the onion, and sauté for a further couple of minutes, before adding in the toasted cumin and coriander, along with the garam masala, turmeric and salt. After a minute, pour in the chopped tomatoes and around 200ml hot water. Stir well. Add the diced beef, then cover and leave to cook on a medium heat for around 20 minutes.
- Remove the cover, stir, then add the diced aubergine. Return the lid to the pot and cook for another 15 minutes, before serving garnished with the fresh coriander.