Mushroom Peas Masala with a peppy twist

Food, in my opinion, can be associated with various emotions. It goes beyond becoming a delicious dish. It turns into an emotional connection.

Be it satiating like a paneer or chicken tikka masala, dull or uninteresting like bottle gourd (lauki) ki sabzi, or be it foodgasmic like hot gulab jamuns on a cold winter’s day.

And when it comes to the peppy emotion, it need not be pasta or pizza. But can be indian based gravies too!

Whenever I cook at home, I usually end up making pasta and noodle based dishes. And usually, when we order in, we call for Indian gravies that are milder in the spice quotient. So, I thought of recreating an order in peppy favourite – Mushroom Peas Masala.

Mushroom Peas Masala is a mildly spiced gravy with tomato and onion based but is creamier due to the addition of cashew paste. It is a main course dish. A hit with the kids as they tend to love both mushrooms as well as green peas. I’ve tried this adapted recipe from Tarla Dalal’s recipe book several times and it has been a hit.

So here’s the recipe:

Preparation Time: 15 mins   

Cooking Time: 30 mins   

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1/4 cup cashewnut (kaju) paste

1 1/2 cups green peas (frozen peas are fine too)

200 gms mushrooms (khumbh), cleaned and cut into halves

2 tbsp oil

4 black cardamom pods

1 stick of cinnamon (dalchini)

1 cup finely chopped onions

2 tbsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lehsun) paste (you can even ground 6 cloves of garlic with 1 inch cubed piece of ginger instead)

1/2 cup tomato puree (you may use fresh 4 medium sized fresh tomatoes, blanch them, peel and blitz in blender for homemade puree)

1 tbsp chilli powder

2 tsp coriander (dhania) seeds powder

1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

1 tsp garam masala

salt to taste

For The Garnish

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (dhania)

Method

Heat the oil in a pan, add the cardamoms, cinnamon stick and onions and saute till onions turn golden brown in colour.

Add the ginger-garlic paste, mix well and cook for 2 minutes on a medium flame.

Add the tomato puree, chilli powder, coriander seeds powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and salt and cook till the oil leaves the masala.

Add the cashewnut paste dissolved in 1 cup of water and mix well. You can also use powdered cashewnuts and add water to it to use it like a paste.

Add 1/2 cup of water and bring it to a boil.

Add the green peas and mushrooms and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or till the green peas are cooked.

Serve hot garnished with coriander.

You can have it with steamed rice, jeera rice, phulkas, rotis, naan or bread.

Do try out this recipe and let me know how you liked it.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.