Jono & Jules do food & wine

Our favourite vegetarian cookbook at the moment is East by Meera Sodha. This is an Indian main course dish but it’s like a soup and works well as both a mid-week dinner, and in a flask for lunch the next day. Also vegan and gluten-free if this is useful information for you. Serve with crusty bread.

Black-eyed bean and chickpea usal – serves 4

• 4 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 2 red onions, chopped
• 2 long green chillies, very finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 large vine tomatoes, chopped
• 1¾ tsp salt
• 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 x 400g tin of black-eyed beans, drained
• 250g frozen peas, defrosted
• 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
• 200g mangetout
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• a handful of coriander leaves, finely chopped

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a high heat. Add the onion and chillies and cook for about 10 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for a minute more.

Add the tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes or until they have broken down, then add the salt and spices and stiry-fry for another minute.

Stir in the black-eyed beans, peas, chickpeas and mangetout and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Add the lemon juice and coriander, then taste and season with more salt if needed.

(Original recipe from East by Meera Sodha, Penguin, 2019.)