Slow Cooker's Loaded w/ Fixins for North Indian Red Beans & Rice

In the pot: Punjabi Curried Kidney Beans

This is one post I wish I could share the aroma of what’s in my 5-quart slow cooker.

Piled high on top of dried kidney beans are onions, hot green chilies, CSA tomatoes and a sensual mixture of red chili, turmeric, garam masala, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, cumin seeds and ginger.

It’s our first attempt making one of Anupy Singla’s recipes from her just-published cookbook, “The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes.”

We’re making Punjabi Curried Kidney Beans, aka rajmah, which Anupy describes as “the quintessential comfort food,” akin to red beans and rice.

All I know is that it was the first thing that got my husband excited. I was going to start with a smaller dish. But this baby will be set to cook for a full 11 hours, overnight, while we sleep.

He expects if all goes well that he’ll want this for breakfast.

We’ll see.

Update: This turned out fantastic. We were tempted to turn the cooker off about an hour or so early when the beans were nice and tender. But it’s worth the extra time until the beans break down and the soup turns creamy. We didn’t have yogurt and forgot to drop in fresh cilantro at the end. No matter. This was a hearty lunch that gave us plenty of energy to labor in the back yard today.

There’s enough leftover for workday lunches and at least one other sit-down meal.