Borboti or Long Bean, was one of the least favorite vegetables when I was a kid! It is not because how it looked like, but mostly because how it was cooked. However, when I myself learned cooking, I discovered that you can make any veggie taste better and change your entire experience if you cook with love and good intentions (and with lots of mustard oil too..hehehe). Now that I’ve sensed the essence of cooking, I love every bit of this unique vegetable. There are many ways of eating borboti/long bean but today I am going to share one of the most popular recipe of long bean that is long bean spread or in Bangla – borboti bhorta.

We definitely need all the basic ingredients for making bhorta like lots of garlic, onion and dried chili but what makes this bhorta unique is kalijeera or nigella seed. Nigella pairs really well with any kinds of bean. Today I have taken 200g of borboti/long beans, lots of garlic, one medium sized onion, dried red chili, some salt and vegetable oil.

First thing first, in a pan, I heated up one tablespoon of oil and added dried red chili. Then I added sliced onion and whole garlic cloves. You may wonder why I did not chopped the garlic. It is because we need to blend everything anyway, so no need for chopped garlic, but you can do it if you like.

I kept aside all the roasted ingredients to cool them down. I also left some whole roasted garlic cloves aside for later.

Now it is time to prepare the long beans. I chopped off the hard end of the beans and cut then into small pieces.

Then in the same pan, I added the chopped pieces of beans with some salt. I sauteed the beans first in the leftover oil and then I added some water and cooked them in low heat until the beans changes in colour and get completely cooked. You can cover the pan with lid if you want to fastened the process.

I took the cooked beans in a blender jar along with roasted chili garlic and onion and blended them into semi-smooth paste.

For the last step, I heated some mustard oil in the same pan and added the nigella seeds and roasted garlic cloves for tempering. Then I added the bean paste that I’ve made previously and stirred everything until the bean paste get nicely toasted. When done, I put the spread or bhorta in a serving bowl and garnished with more mustard oil.

This is how the beautiful bhorta looks like. Imagine how it will be taste like with warm white rice in a cold rainy day! Just like this, a simple bhorta can make your day fulfilled with warmth and happiness.

Recipe: Borboti bhorta /Long Bean Spread

Ingredients: Long beans – 200g Onion- 1 medium Garlic- 8-9 big cloves Dry red chili- 3/4 pieces Nigella seeds – 1tsp Oil Salt

1. Lightly toast dry red chili, sliced onion and whole garlic cloves in a pan with vegetable oil. Keep them aside and let them cool down. Also keep aside some whole garlic cloves. 2. Cut off the end part of the beans and cut them into small pieces. 3. In the same pan, slightly roast the beans in left over oils. Add some water to cook the beans. When cooked, cool down the beans. 4. Take the cooked beans in a blender jar, add the previously toasted onion, garlic and chili and blend everything to a semi- smooth paste. 5. In the same pan, add a table spoon of mustard oil and heat it up. Add nigella seeds to temper the oil and previously roasted garlic cloves. Now add the bean paste to the pan and stir until all well incorporated with oil, slightly burned/roasted and aromatic. Put them in a serving bowl when done. Serve with white rice.