Chai Time: Chickpea Flour Green Beans with Priya Krishna! Spicewalla Team 11/18/2020 Share Pin Tweet Photo by: Mackenzie Kelley Looking for quick and healthy ways to amp up your dinner side dish game? The amazing Priya Krishna helps us out with this simple and delicious recipe, good for all kinds of diets and preferences! She says, "This recipe is my favorite use for chickpea flour—as a rich, crispy coating for vegetables. It’s like tempura, but nuttier and without the greasy bits from the frying. This was also my late grandmother’s absolute favorite dish, and geez, are these green beans good: crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside. It’s all too easy to devour an entire pan of them in a single sitting. Make sure you scrape the roast-y bits off the bottom of the pan before serving. Those are the best part!" ...Need we say more? To watch the whole video on IGTV, click here. And Don't forget to check out the Indian-ish Cookbook and Spice Collection here! Ingredients ¼ cup chickpea flour ¼ cup olive oil 1 teaspoon Spicewalla ajwain seeds 1 teaspoon Spicewalla ground turmeric ¼ teaspoon asafoetida (optional, but really great) 1 small yellow onion, finely diced 1 small Indian green chilli or serrano chilli, finely chopped 1 pound green beans, ends trimmed, cut into ½-inch pieces (see Tip) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (from about half a lime), plus more if needed Priya's tip: Don’t cut the green beans individually; it will take forever. Line up bunches of three or four beans of the same size and cut them together. Alternatively, just use frozen precut green beans—they work fine! Shop the Recipe Ajwain Seed $7.20 Ground Turmeric $8.93 Print Preparation In a medium skillet over low heat, toast the chickpea flour, stirring continuously, until the flour is golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the flour to a plate and let it cool. Wipe out the skillet. In the same skillet over medium heat, warm the oil. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the ajwain seeds and cook until they start to pop, which should be in a matter of seconds. Swirl in the turmeric and add the asafoetida (if using), onion, and chilli. Cook until the onion is just translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the green beans and salt, then the toasted chickpea flour. Add ¼ cup water and mix everything together so the flour evenly coats the beans. Spread the beans out into an even layer in the pan, cover, and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the beans are tender and bright green and there’s a crispy layer of chickpea flour on the bottom of the pan. Once the beans are cooked, scrape up the crispy bits from the bottom of the pan and mix them into the beans. Remove from the heat and add the lime juice. Taste and add more lime juice, if needed, then give everything one last stir before serving! Chickpea Flour Green Beans is excerpted from Indian-ish © 2019 by Priya Krishna with Ritu Krishna. Photography © 2019 by Mackenzie Kelley. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. Shop the Recipe Ajwain Seed $7.20 Ground Turmeric $8.93 chai-time gluten free Side southeast-asian 2 Comments Excited for you to make these, Angie! Ajwain actually tastes a lot like thyme or oregano, so if you’ve got those as a substitute, they would give a similar flavor. That said, this recipe will still be delicious if you just skip the Ajwain for now! Enjoy! Spicewalla Fam on January 10, 2022 I would really love to make this dish this weekend, but the only seed I don’t have is ajwain. I’ve got cumin seeds, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, etc. Is there a good substitute you’d recommend? Angie on January 10, 2022 Add a Comment Name Email Message Please note, comments must be approved before they are published