Saaru Upkari (Black Eyed Peas Soup)

Happy New Year all! The last and only konkani dish I have posted so far was the spicy and tangy batate song (potato gravy). I am going to make a conscious effort to post more konkani dishes - really simple ones. Coz honestly, I can't make the traditional konkani dishes that typically involve the coconut. :| I think it's high time I learnt them - but the husband isn't a fan of the coconut - ARGH!

Saaru upkari is a really simple konkani dish and can be made with any dried beans like white peas, navy beans, chick peas - etc. Saaru in konkani means soupy water, like rasam. Upkari is sabzi or stir fry. So, this combines both in a single dish! One of the reasons I like this recipe is that it doesn't need a lot of ingredients and you don't need to constantly stand near the stove and monitor it.

Recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

Dried beans of your choice - 1 cup (I typically use black eyed peas)
Green chillies, slit - 2
Water - 1 to 2 cups (depends on how much soup you want)
Salt to taste

For seasoning
Dried red chillies, broken - 2/3
Garlic pods, chopped - 2 big ones. Garlic is the key ingredient here, so don't be afraid to add a strong seasoning!
Oil - 1 tsp

Method

- Soak the beans overnight or at least for about 8 hrs. Pressure cook them until soft and mushy.

- Take the cooked beans in a sauce pan, add the slit green chillies, water and salt.

- The dried beans are pretty bland on their own, so make sure you bring it to a good boil. I let it boil at least for 5 mins on a high flame and then simmer on low for another 10 mins. Don't forget to stir in between and you can even mash the cooked beans slightly with your spatula.

- For the seasoning, heat a tsp of oil and add the chopped garlic. Let it brown slightly and then add the dried red chillies, allowing it to fry a bit.

- Add it to the saucepan, switch off the flame and let the cooked beans soak in all the flavors.

Have it with rice and pappad. I usually devour this as soup with just a few rice grains and lots of pappad pieces! Yummmmm!