By Grocery List Plus Editorial Staff | Published on June 14, 2026
Serves 3
506 cal · 40 min
French Beans, Potatoes, and Peas Curry in African Style
Recipe GLPR160f83007d5ae8
A vibrant African-style vegetable curry featuring tender potatoes, fresh french beans, and peas cooked in a fragrant blend of spices. The curry is built on a base of caramelized onions and tomatoes with ginger-garlic paste, coriander, cumin, and warm spices that create a rich, deeply flavored dish. Kambuzi chillies add an authentic African kick, though the recipe is easily adapted to suit your heat preference. This wholesome, plant-based meal is best served with rice or rotli.
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Ingredients
2 medium onions, sliced
1 medium to large tomato, sliced
100 grams fresh french beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
4-5 Kambuzi chillies, whole (optional; increase red chilli powder if omitted)
1 teaspoon ground coriander and cumin powder
1 teaspoon red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup water (added gradually during cooking)
Directions
Prepare all vegetables: slice the onions and tomato. Trim the french beans, removing any stringy fibers from the sides, and cut them into 2-inch pieces. Peel the potatoes and cut them into large chunks to keep them from becoming mushy. Set all vegetables aside.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they become translucent and beginning to soften, about 3-4 minutes.
Add the sliced tomatoes, ginger-garlic paste, and the whole Kambuzi chillies (if using) to the pan. Stir well to combine with the onions.
Sprinkle in the coriander and cumin powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, and salt. Stir everything together thoroughly and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the spices are fragrant and the oil begins to separate from the mixture.
Add the potato chunks and french beans to the pan. Toss everything together to coat the vegetables with the spiced oil mixture. Stir for 1-2 minutes.
Add the green peas and stir to combine. Pour in 1/4 cup water (start with the smaller amount to avoid making the potatoes mushy) and stir well.
Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with a lid, and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally and checking frequently. Add small amounts of additional water as needed if the curry appears to be drying out, but add it gradually to prevent the potatoes from becoming mushy. The vegetables should be tender, and the potatoes should show only slight resistance when pierced with a fork.
Once the potatoes and beans are tender and cooked through, check the consistency. If the curry lacks sufficient sauce, add a little water and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the oil begins to release and coat the vegetables. The finished curry should have a light coat of spiced oil with visible vegetables, not a thick gravy.
Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Serve hot alongside steamed rice or rotli bread.
Comments
This vegetable curry is budget-friendly and uses mostly Charlotte staples—onions, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, and green beans are standard at Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Walmart, and ALDI, and the spice pantry items (turmeric, cumin, coriander, red chilli powder) are widely available. The real snag is kambuzi chilli, a regional African ingredient that you won't find at Charlotte chains and would require a trip to an African specialty grocer. At roughly $1.50–2.00 per serving for the base vegetables and oil, cost is reasonable for a weeknight vegetable dish. The stated 40 minutes is honest if you're comfortable with knife work, though chopping the onion and vegetables takes 10 minutes upfront; it's a straightforward braise with no fussy technique. This reheats well and keeps for two days, making it practical for a meal-prep lunch, but the small yield (three servings) means it's suited to a couple or a small family, and the need for kambuzi chilli means you're either substituting with a more common African chilli or committing to a specialty-store trip.
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