Black-Eyed Beans & Chicken Stuffing

Black-eyed bean and minced meat curry was a staple in my mom’s Pakistani kitchen. She batch-cooked the beans and froze them in little packets. These packets would be her saviour on busy days when she could not fathom what to cook. Served with hot chapatis, my mom’s black-eyed bean and minced meat curry was a favourite of mine.

A few days ago, I was casually strolling through the shelves in the supermarket when I noticed neatly stored cans of black-eyed beans. That instigated a much need flashback of my mom’s delicious recipe. Inevitably, I stocked my cart with multiple cans of the beans.

I knew I wanted to replicate the taste of my mom’s curry, but I also knew that I had to make it more like stuffing than curry. My busy lifestyle has little room for curries, especially on weekdays because I can’t afford to have curry spill in my bags or put me in a food coma after lunch. Stuffing on the other side is perfect to make a wrap with. It can also be tossed with some quinoa or brown rice with a chutney or sauce on the side. No fuss, right?

In addition to making my mum’s recipe corporate-career-proof, I also made it slightly healthier by keeping oil to a minimum and replacing ground beef with ground chicken breasts that I minced in my food processor at home. You can also buy minced chicken from the store. I couldn’t find organic variety in my supermarket.

I made the black-eyed bean and minced chicken stuffing over the weekend and stored in the fridge. During the week, it was rather easy to stuff a wrap with the stuffing and take it with me to work. I even added a little water to it one night and turned it into a more curry consistency to have with hot whole-wheat tortillas that are the closest it gets to mom’s hot chapatis in Amsterdam.

Without further nostalgic blabbering, I will list down the recipe.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil (1tbsp)
• Onion (1 large—chopped)
• Garlic cloves (4—minced)
• Tomatoes (2—chopped or ½ cup canned)
• Green chillies (3—chopped)
• Chilli powder (1tsp)
• Turmeric powder (1/4tsp)
• Cumin powder (1/2tsp)
• Garam masala (2/3 tsp)
• Ground chicken, organic (250 grams or two organic chicken breasts minced in a food processor)
• Black-eyed beans, organic (400grams/16oz can)
• Lemon, juiced (1)
• Coriander springs (16-20)

Method:

• Sauté the onion in oil until golden brown.
• Add minced garlic and sauté until fragrant. If onion and garlic stick, use a splash of water to deglaze the pan instead of more oil.
• Now add tomatoes and green chillies, as well as all the spices. Cook for a couple of minutes. Again, add water to deglaze the pan if needed.
• When the oil separates from the mixture, add ground chicken and cook until the chicken changes colour, about five minutes. You can add more at this point if you’d like the consistency to be more curry-like.
• Add the can of beans (washed & rinsed). Stir until everything is combined and turn off heat.
• Garnish with chopped coriander and lemon juice.