Rajma

Name: Rajma
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: Dried kidney beans; Ghee; Onion; Passata; Garlic; Fresh ginger; Ground cumin; Ground coriander; Ground turmeric; Red chilli; Salt; Fresh coriander

298 kcal a serving, against 366 for the traditional version. That is 68 kcal off, or 19%, with 17g of protein. Serves 6. 90 minutes.

What the traditional version is

Dried kidney beans soaked overnight and boiled until tender. They are then simmered in a thick, intensely spiced gravy made from a mountain of onions and tomatoes, all fried in a very generous pool of ghee until the fat separates and floats on top.

What changed, and what each change costs

60g of ghee down to 15g of ghee

Fat is the main lever here. Traditional recipes fry the onions in a deep puddle of ghee until they caramelise. You can achieve the exact same onion breakdown with a fraction of the oil if you use a good pan, add a pinch of salt, and splash in a little tap water whenever they threaten to catch.

What it costs you. You lose that signature layer of red oil that floats on top of a classic restaurant bowl. The gravy is slightly less rich, so it feels less like a heavy blanket and more like a sharp, hearty stew.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Dried kidney beans
Ghee
Onion
Passata
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Ground turmeric
Red chilli
Salt
Fresh coriander

How it starts

Put the dried kidney beans in a large bowl, cover them with at least 10 centimetres of cold tap water, and leave them to soak for 12 hours.
Boiling the beans is the first thing you must get right.
Heat the ghee in a large frying pan over a medium heat.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Indian.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	366	298
Protein	17g	17g
Fat	11.4g	3.9g
Saturated fat	6.2g	1.7g
Carbohydrate	52g	52g
Protein per 100 kcal	4.6g	5.7g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Indian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. milk.

The method is in the book

This is proper comfort food that won't leave you feeling like you swallowed a bowling ball. By dropping the ghee and relying on a slow onion reduction, I've kept the deep, complex flavour of the original. Yes, you miss out on that luxurious slick of fat on top, but the beans carry it. Call it a massive main course that works brilliantly rather than a greasy side dish and you'll be about right.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Indian, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback