Lobia Salan
لوبیے کا سالن
Lobia, the small cream-coloured bean with a black eye, is a cheap, filling favourite in Pakistani kitchens, cooked as a thick for roti or rice. The beans are soaked and boiled until tender, then simmered in a properly browned onion and tomato masala so they soak up its flavour. A spoon of yogurt rounds out the gravy, and a little garam masala and fresh coriander finish it.
- ⏱ Total: 1 hr 15 min
- Prep: 15 min
- Cook: 1 hr
- Easy
- Serves 4
Method
Tap a step when it is done.
Drain the soaked lobia and put it in a pot with the 4 cups of water and half a teaspoon of the salt. Boil, then simmer partly covered for 25–30 minutes until a bean squashes easily between your fingers. Keep the cooking water.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a over medium-high heat. Add the cumin and, when it crackles, the onions. Fry for 10–12 minutes, stirring often, until deep golden brown.
Add the ginger and garlic paste and stir for a minute. Add the tomatoes, chili powder, turmeric, coriander powder and the rest of the salt, and do the for 6–8 minutes until the tomatoes melt.
Lower the heat, stir in the yogurt a spoonful at a time and keep stirring for 3–4 minutes until it is absorbed and the oil separates at the edges.
Add the boiled beans with about 1.5 cups of their cooking water and stir well. Mash a few beans against the pot to thicken the gravy.
Cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes until the gravy is thick and creamy and the beans have taken on the masala. Add a splash more water for a thinner salan.
Sprinkle over the garam masala, add the green chilies and coriander, and rest for 5 minutes. Serve with roti, naan or plain rice.
Kitchen notes
Brown the onions well. The colour of the onions decides the colour and depth of the whole salan.
Add the yogurt on low heat and keep stirring, or it can split into grainy bits.
Short on time? Use two drained cans of black-eyed beans and skip the boiling; simmer for just 10 minutes in the masala.
A thrifty, hearty salan
Lobia salan is one of those dishes that turns up regularly on Pakistani tables without any fuss. Dried black-eyed beans are inexpensive, keep for months and need less soaking than larger beans, so they make a dependable weeknight meal when the vegetable basket is low. It is eaten with roti for lunch or dinner, and in Punjab it is also a popular filling for a lunchbox of roti and achar.
The key technique: boil first, then marry with the masala
Cooking the beans separately until tender, with a little salt, means they cook evenly and you control their texture. Meanwhile the masala gets the attention it deserves: onions fried until deep golden, a thorough of tomatoes and spices, then yogurt stirred in slowly until the oil comes back up. When the beans go in with some of their cooking water, which is full of flavour and starch, they simmer just long enough to absorb the masala, and mashing a few of them makes the gravy naturally thick.
Variations
- Lobia gosht: cook 500 g mutton or beef in the masala until tender before adding the beans.
- Without yogurt: add an extra tomato and a squeeze of lemon at the end instead.
- Dry style: cook off most of the liquid for a thick bhuna lobia to roll into paratha.
Storing and reheating
Lobia salan tastes even better the next day. Keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze it for a month. Reheat gently with a few spoonfuls of water.
Questions people ask
Do I have to soak lobia?
It helps. Soaked lobia boils in about 25–30 minutes; unsoaked it can take close to an hour and cooks less evenly. A quick fix is to boil it for 2 minutes, leave it covered for an hour, then cook as normal.
Is lobia the same as rajma?
No. In Pakistan lobia usually means black-eyed beans, while rajma (lal lobia) are the larger red kidney beans. Both are cooked as salan in a similar way, but rajma needs longer.
Can I add meat?
Yes. Lobia gosht is a popular combination: cook bite-sized mutton or beef in the masala until tender, then add the boiled beans.
Nutrition (estimate, per serving)
- Calories
- 340
- Protein
- 13 g
- Fat
- 18 g
- Carbs
- 33 g
