Experience the authentic flavours of the traditional Mauritian white bean curry, a beloved dish often enjoyed with the iconic Mauritian roti—a popular and flavourful street food in Mauritius.
With tomatoes at the heart of the sauce, the typical Mauritian curry is much lighter than coconut milk based sauces. In fact, coconut milk is a less common ingredient in Mauritian-style curries. Quintessentially, the Mauritian curry is a Creole-style sauce with just enough spices for a heart-warming aromatic dish. Despite being much lighter, it is not for the least shy on flavour.
The white bean curry is one of the most common filling that is served with the Mauritian roti that is sold on the streets. While this post is part of a series of three, featuring the traditional Mauritian roti and the fillings that go along with it, you can certainly enjoy this curry over rice too.
Quite often, I come across discussions on groups and forums about curries turning out bland. While you can add more curry powder and other spices to accentuate the flavour, most of the time it just comes down to roasting the spices as you might have noticed in previous curries featured here.
The devil’s in the detail, as Kevin would sometimes put it. Two to three minutes can seem like a very short time but relatively, when it comes to cooking, they can make all the difference. Two extra seconds of roasting the spices for a curry, can either brighten the whole dish to a whole new level or downright ruin it, that is if you let them burn! Small subtleties are all it takes to either make or break any perfect dish.
The recipe is simple and comes together rather quickly. I usually keep pre-boiled beans (from dried) portioned out in the freezer, ready to be used, but you can certainly use canned beans.
Because of their size, white navy beans work well as a roti filler but Great Northern Beans, cannellini, lima or butter beans are good substitutes.
Watch the recipe video for the easy process – how to make White Bean Curry.
Also in this series:
White Bean Curry Recipe
Discover an easy and flavourful Creole-style Mauritian tomato-based white bean curry, perfect as a roti / flatbread filling, or served over rice. This versatile dish is a delicious option for a quick and satisfying meal, offering authentic Mauritian flavours that are both comforting and nutritious.
Ingredients
- 430 g (2 1/4 cups) boiled white navy beans (obtained from 1 cup (200 g) dried beans, or you can also use canned beans)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil, or vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds, optional
- 1 tablespoon mild curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander seed powder, optional
- 6 - 8 curry leaves, dried or fresh or substituted with 1 - 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 small onion, diced (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
- 2 large (240 g) fresh Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 green chilli, optional, cut in half
- 1 red chilli, optional, cut in half
- 4-5 sprigs cilantro or coriander leaves, finely chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Heat the coconut oil in a pan on medium-high temperature.
Next add the minced ginger. If you are using onions and garlic, add them at this stage. Cook for about 30 seconds then quickly add in the curry powder, garam masala, turmeric, coriander powder, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.
Let the spices roast in the oil for about 5 seconds. Then add a little water to form a paste.
Allow the paste to roast for a couple of minutes.Then add a little more water when it starts to dry out. Let the spice mixture roast for another couple of minutes.
Next add in the tomatoes and continue to cook until they start to break down.
When tomatoes have softened, mash them with your cooking spoon to help them disintegrate further into a smoother sauce.
Add the chillies. Stir and leave this to cook for another 3 minutes.
Add the pre-cooked white beans beans. Add a little water and stir
Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for another 10 - 15 minutes (depending on how soft the beans are).
Add salt to taste.
You may adjust the sauce consistency with some more water at this stage but we want to keep the sauce fairly thick though otherwise it will be too runny to be used as a roti filler.
Garnish with coriander (cilantro).
Give everything a stir and turn off the heat.
Notes
Other recipes in this series -
Mauritian Roti - https://veganlovlie.com/traditional-mauritian-roti-farata-or/
Rougaille Sauce and Coriander (Cilantro) Chutney - https://veganlovlie.com/traditional-mauritian-roti-and-fillings-2/
Good thing I have seen your youtube videos. I wanna try your recipes????????. ~ Ross,Philippines????
I notice you don’t peel the tomatoes. I rarely use fresh tomatoes in cooked recipes anymore as I always seem to have an issue with the skins separating from the flesh and becoming papery and quite distasteful. Do you think this could be the variety of tomato I’m using? Would you think that tinned or sieved tomatoes could be substituted without affecting the overall dish?
Canned tomatoes are also good to use. The tomato skins don’t bother me. I don’t think it has to do with the type of tomatoes, any type will separate from the skin when cooked. If they bother you, cut the tomatoes much smaller or blend them first before adding them in, the skins won’t be a problem. I hope this helps.
Thanks so much.
You’re welcome. 🙂
I am so glad I found you on YouTube and now on your blog. Your instructions are very clear, the photos make me drool. Thank you for sharing and I will be trying out the recipes for roti (sweet potato and the regular) real soon and definitely will be making the white bean curry very, very soon.
OMG, I found this recipe today and made a soup out of it. It was so good and I love the mix of spices. I will certainly be making this again and again. Thank you! Sorry, I computer couldn’t let me give 5 stars.
J’ai cuisiné ce plat ce soir et on s’est régalé. Rapide à préparer et extrêmement savoureux.
Je l’ai accompagné des roti de patate douce !
Merci
Simple but delicious, thank you! My first time trying to cook Mauritian food; I want to try making it with the roti next time :).
Thank you 🙂 It was delicious . I skipped chillies because of kids . I doubled the recipe and used 1 kg dry white beans. Perfect family meal 🙂
Made this last night and it was simple and quick but very delicious, especially with the rougaille and coriander chutney. I look forward to trying more of your recipes 🙂