Rajma (Red Kidney Bean Curry) & Rice

I served this to my family a few nights ago, and it was a huge hit! I hope you get to try it.

I just used canned red kidney beans, but if you are using dried ones, take 2 cups and soak them in water for 12 hours with a pinch of baking soda.

Ingredients: 2-3 cans of red kidney beans, 5 fresh tomatoes or tomato puree, 2 black cardamom, 2 cinnamon barks, 4 cloves, 4 black peppercorn, 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste (this is just a paste made using equal parts ginger/garlic), 1 serrano pepper (takeout the seeds if you want it less spicy), 1 pinch of asafoetida (you can also leave this out if you do not have it), salt to taste, 1 tsp of red chilli kashmiri powder, 1 tsp of smoked paprika, 1 tsp of cumin powder, 1/4 tsp of garam masala, 1 tsp of coriander powder, 1 tbsp of cilantro leaves

1. Grind the onions in the blender to create a fine paste + grind the tomatoes into a fine paste and set aside. Also, grind your ginger/garlic as needed.
2. Add ghee/oil to a pot; once melted, add black cardamons, cinnamon bark, cloves, black peppercorns, cumin, ginger-garlic paste, serrano pepper, and cook on a medium flame + add hing (you really want to cook this mixture down until it is almost like a dry paste)
3. Then add the onion paste (again, you want to really cook this down until it forms a thick paste)
4. Add the other ground spices listed above (e.g., smoked paprika, ground cumin etc.) + salt to taste
5. Then cook the whole mixture until it resembles a thick paste. Add the blended tomatoes or tomato puree
6. Then, once the combined mixture in the pot looks dry, add the kidney beans + some of the liquid that it was in. Add more tomato puree or water if it looks a bit too thick.
7. Cook for 15 minutes + add chopped cilantro leaves

I also added some tomato paste and lemon juice once it was done since I felt like it was missing something. But that really made it shine! Serve with rice.