Achinga thoran or Achinga payar thoran | Kerala style long beans stir fry

Achinga thoran recipe with detailed photos and video

Achinga throan, another simple and delicious Kerala delicacy which is usually served with steamed rice. Thoran is a kind of easy and simple recipe and can be prepared with almost all types of vegetables. The flavor of curry leaves and coconut oil makes this dish even more adorable to Malayalee's which gives an inevitable position is our daily lunch menu. The abundance of coconut trees in Kerala not only influence the name of this state, but also controls our taste buds. We Keralites can never imagine a day without coconut.

Achinga is known as long beans in English which has many varieties. We love to have our typical Kerala long beans and never seen these items other than Kerala. We have our own purple version of this lovely vegetable which I felt tastier than the regular green varieties. When I first had this green variety after my marriage from Chennai, it was really difficult for me to gallop its taste and texture of long beans which I used to eat from my childhood. Later, I started to prepare this recipe and still I don't like the mezhukkupuratti made of the long beans available here.

Achinga thoran is tasty when prepared with tender ones as the matured ones turns hard and rubbery. So it will be better to take the peas out of the pods and incorporate. The same old rules of making thoran, do not make watery, try to leave a slight crunchiness in long beans after cooking, and finally never add water while grinding.

We have some other thoran recipes in this blog, like

Each of these recipes gives a different taste and texture so please feel free to visit these recipes, experience differences in taste with different vegetables. Today's recipe is also as delicious as this, please go through the recipes and methods.

Achinga thoran recipe | How to make achinga payar thoran | How to make Kerala style long beans stir fry

Kerala style long beans stir fry with spicy coconut mix

Preparation time : 15 minutes | Cooking time : 10 minutes | Total time : 25 minutes

Ingredients

250 grams long beans / achinga
3/4 - 1 cup grated coconut
3 -4 green chilies
3-4 shallots
3 garlic cloves (optional)
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 dried red chilies
2 springs of curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 tablespoon coconut oil
Salt to taste
Oil as needed
Water as needed

How to make achinga thoran - video

Achinga thoran preparation with step by step photos

As I already said in the intro section, choose tender long beans or achinga for this particular recipes, do not add any matured hard pods. Wash thoroughly and drain excess water and keep in the colander for sometime until the long beans turns dry. Then chop finely and keep aside. You can also use the peas from matured beans.
Before starting to cooking, we need to prepare the coconut masala. For that, crush green chilies, shallots, garlic cloves and cumin seeds in the chutney jar of mixer grinder. Do not make a fine paste, just pulse it using its pulse button.
Then put the grated coconut and turmeric powder. Crush again in the same way using the pulse button, two to three times. Then we have the coconut masala ready and we can proceed with cooking. Do not add any water while grinding, this will spoil the texture of your dish.
Heat up a pan, preferably a wok or kadai. When hot, pour two to three tablespoons of oil.Wait till the oil gets hot, once its stop bubbling and start the formation of fumes, put mustard seeds. Mustard seeds will start spluttering instantly if the oil is hot enough.
Once the mustard seeds stop crackling, put halved red chilies after removing its stalk, and a few curry leaves. Give a stir for one or two seconds until the sputtering stops and the red chillies turn crisp.
This is the time to put chopped long beans and salt. Reduce the flame once you add long beans and salt to taste.
Sprinkle some water and cook covered on medium flame, till the beans cooked and water evaporates. You can stir in between and make sure that the mix does not burn.
After 3 to 4 minutes, open the lid and check the beans. the long beans should be cooked well, leaving a slight bit in it. Now you can put the crushed coconut that we have already made. Give a nice stir until the long beans and coconut mixed well. Adjust salt and spices if needed.
Again cook over low to medium flame until the raw smell of coconut completely leaves. This will take hardly 5 minutes.
Once ready, switch off the flame and serve hot with steamed rice.