First of all, I am super impressed with myself and my google skills in finding the English spelling of the name of this dish, ha! Malayalam does have a soft “R” sound, in addition to two other R sounds. Why does it have to be so complicated?! Anyway, the soft “R” is spelled as a “zh” when using English letters. Also that word mezhukupuratti is often said so quickly that it sounds like it only has 4 syllables when spoken, instead of the 45 you might imagine from reading it.

So basically, any mezhukupuratti is a vegetable side dish that does not use ground coconut. As I’ve written about before, a thoran is the term for side dishes incorporating ground coconut. I think you can still throw in some thinly sliced coconut if you want, but I don’t have the time or coordination to crack open coconuts and cut out all of the meat. Frozen coconut it is.

This recipe goes great as a side for any Indian meal. I highly recommend using coconut oil for this one because it gives it such a delicious flavor and fragrance that cannot be replicated with other oils. Truly, don’t bother making this if not with coconut oil! It will just be underwhelming.

So here we go:

Beans Mezhukupuratti

Ingredients:

Fresh green beans, ends cut off, and cut into 2 inch pieces — approximately 200g
Half a small onion, diced
8g finely chopped garlic
1g finely chopped ginger
1-2 fresh green chilies, chopped (with seeds for extra heat)
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
55g coconut oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

In a saucepan, melt coconut oil and add onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies. Sauté until onions translucent.

Add green beans, turmeric, coriander, salt, black pepper.

Mix well and sauté until beans are cooked through. This will take some time*, and the onions will sort of caramelize and it will be delicious.

*Because it does take a while and I am afraid it will burn, I do eventually add a little bit of water and cover with a lid to let it steam and cook faster. You want all of the water to evaporate.

Here’s the finished product with some coconut curry chicken and turmeric cauliflower rice. Look at those dark, caramelized onions in the green beans! Mouth. Watering.