Since legumes provide the bulk of protein for vegetarians, its inevitable that it is one of my go to ingredients. I have so many variety in my pantry that it helps me to vary my meals providing  freshness to the dish. But somehow, I never seem to find time to post such dishes since I do that mostly in a jiffy and to take pictures every time becomes a cumbersome process. Weekends, I end up resorting to ingredients available here which might be a problem for readers across the map. But recently, I was asked for Rajma Chawal by a reader and I was like -"Oh my god! I don't have Rajma Chawal in the site?!!!". I manage to astound myself every time since I always convince myself that nobody wants such dishes. Why I would assume such a thing is beyond me!

There is one section of readers who tell me that I seem to be lagging behind my usual game whenever I post simple recipes and not hard ones. I would put a special plea to such readers asking them to be patient and understanding of the fact that there is another huge section of readers who want simple day to day meals too and they are curious to know how I prepare it. Out of 250 odd recipe request I have in my "to-do" list (which is growing every single day :( !), at least 150 of them are simple day to day recipes. Few of them sadly, I cannot undertake due to lack of ingredients in this part of the world, while few others I cannot cos I don't make them there being no takers in this house! The others I am doing slowly as and when time paves way. So this Rajma Chawal is one such dish in this category. Rajma in Hindi means "Kidney Beans" and Chawal means "Rice". This, in short, you can call as Kidney Beans rice. But unlike pilafs where everything is mixed together as one pot meal ,this popular Punjabi dish,is enjoyed  in a different way. A side dish of kidney beans is prepared with spices and then enjoyed with rice. Two different elements cooked separately comes together as a final dish. You can make this one day as a side dish for say Roti's, chapathi's, tortillas etc. Since this side dish is even more awesome the next day, if you have leftovers, enjoy them then traditionally with rice. This is what mostly happens in my house where I prepare this for dinner and I enjoy the leftovers the next day with steamed rice and curd.  Its not the end of the world if you don't use this many spices as I have mentioned. They do make the dish taste good, agreed. But its totally OK if you want to use just 1-2 of the spices - whatever you have on hand. Its still a versatile dish and will end up being hearty and nutritious nevertheless. I have not added any "fat" per se, but trust me when I say this, a little bit of ghee/butter makes this "heavenly!". ;)