Bell Pepper Bharta

"Bell peppers, peanut butter and coconut team beautifully with fragrant Indian spices to form a delicious vegetarian dish. Serve with rice or parathas for a light meal, or as one of several dishes in an Indian feast . To make ginger-garlic paste, peel and roughly chop equal quantities of ginger and garlic, and process or blend with a little water until pulpy. It can be stored in the refrigerator in a closed jar for several weeks."
 
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Ready In:
45mins
Ingredients:
20
Serves:
2-4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Gather and prepare all ingredients prior to commencing cooking.
  • Heat a medium to large heavy-based saucepan on high, then reduce heat slightly and add peanut oil.
  • When hot, add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry seeds, and cook stirring until mustard seeds start to pop and splutter.
  • Add onions and continue sauteing until golden brown.
  • Add ginger and garlic paste and cook 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium before adding peanut butter.
  • Stir continuously until peanut butter forms a sauce and add as much water as necessary to prevent the mixture catching on the bottom of the pan.
  • Add bell pepper and tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes until pulpy, adding a little more water as necessary.
  • Add turmeric, garam masala, sesame seeds and dry coconut powder and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring from time to time.
  • Add yoghurt, chile powder, lemon juice and tamarind concentrate, and heat through gently until hot and flavors have blended.
  • Serve hot, garnished with chopped cilantro.
  • Please note, omitting the peanut butter, which is an essential component of this dish, completely changes its character and flavour. It also requires the full amount of coconut powder and yoghurt as specified in the ingredients, for an authentic taste.

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Reviews

  1. I made this last night and it was great! It's time consuming but not difficult. I used all red peppers and added some peas towards the end of cooking, partly to make it prettier and partly to distract my other half from the large amount of red pepper (but he noticed anyway). I wasn't sure what was meant by dry coconut powder, so I used coconut milk powder and when I looked in the fridge I found that I'd run out of tamarind paste, so I had to leave that out. I served it over plain rice. The only other thing worth mentioning is that next time I'll make it in a non-stick pan because it did stick! Thanks for posting this Daydream! I'll make it again.
     
  2. We made this for dinner last night. I omitted the peanut butter{as we are not fond of that in our Indian curries}. I used 2 medium tomatoes, 1 small onion, 1 inch ginger and 3 cloves of garlic{both chopped} and not their pastes, 1/2 tsp. of garam masala powder, no sesame seeds, 2 tsps. of coconut powder instead of fresh grated coconut, 2 tbsps. of yoghurt and 1 tsp. of tamarind paste. I didn't use any lemon juice for this. I had to adapt this this way so my family would eat it. It was quite allright for a change and went nicely with hot rotis. Thanks for posting!
     
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Tweaks

  1. We made this for dinner last night. I omitted the peanut butter{as we are not fond of that in our Indian curries}. I used 2 medium tomatoes, 1 small onion, 1 inch ginger and 3 cloves of garlic{both chopped} and not their pastes, 1/2 tsp. of garam masala powder, no sesame seeds, 2 tsps. of coconut powder instead of fresh grated coconut, 2 tbsps. of yoghurt and 1 tsp. of tamarind paste. I didn't use any lemon juice for this. I had to adapt this this way so my family would eat it. It was quite allright for a change and went nicely with hot rotis. Thanks for posting!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>I was raised in a family that loves to travel, meet people from other countries, and taste new foods. We are quite 'international' - my brother's wife is Indian, my sister's husband is Swiss and my son's wife is of Swedish and Croatian origin. My little dogs are German - miniature Dachshunds.</p> 8725212"
 
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