Yard Long Beans Curry | Karamani (Payathangai) Poriyal

This simple, easy-to-make stir fry with yard-long beans will soon become your favorite. A vegan poriyal made with garden fresh long beans is known as karamani or payathangai in Tamil and Chawli in Hindi. This delicious stir-fry can be made in under 30 minutes and is a perfect side for sambar rice or rasam rice.

Today I made the karamani curry with soaked moong dal and grated coconut and sauteed it in coconut oil. Coconut oil adds a lot of flavor when making poriyal like this and I would strongly suggest using it.

These yard-long beans are very easy to grow and we have been harvesting them in bunches since summer. Thanks to the unusually warm fall, we are still harvesting long beans from our garden. The fresh long beans hardly take any time to cook and can be sauteed in the pan itself. When crunched for time, I usually steam it quickly in my Instant-pot, and after that, it hardly takes 10 minutes to make.

Growing yard-long beans

One of the easiest beans to grow is the karamani or yard-long beans. We grew them every year back on the East Coast when we lived in New York and have been growing them here in Oklahoma for the past few years.

We grow these from seeds and the boys have a lot of fun harvesting the beans that grow as twins. The flowers are beautiful and a wonderful treat for the eyes when they bloom.

Long beans are vines and need some kind of trellis to spread on. We use the metal cattle panels as trellis and it gives the plants adequate space to branch out and grow.

Depending on the kind of long beans, they can grow pretty long (yard-long). I harvest them when the seeds inside are still immature. Towards the end of the season, we leave a few pods on the plant to mature and dry. These become the seeds that we use for next year.

Ingredients needed

Check the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact measurements and printable detailed recipes.

Yard-long beans / karamani / chawli - I have used our garden fresh beans today to make this poriyal. We can find the long beans at the Indian stores.

Grated coconut - I use frozen grated coconut in the curry. We can use freshly grated one. I have used the desiccated coconut in the poriyal when I run out of fresh ones but they would be my last choice.

Moong dal - I use soaked yellow moong dal in almost all of my curries with coconut like the regular string beans curry, avarakkai (flat beans) curry, and Kothavarangai (cluster beans) curry. It is optional and can be skipped but adds a nice crunch to the poriyal.

Seasonings - I used mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida, red chilies, and curry leaves.

Coconut oil - I use coconut oil for poriyal with coconut but any cooking oil like vegetable oil, olive oil or gingelly oil can be used.

• Prep the moong dal - wash and soak the moong dal in hot water for 15-20 minutes. Drain the dal after and use it in the poriyal.

• Prep and chop - Wash the long beans and trim the edges. Chop the beans into small pieces.

• If the long beans are tender, we can cook them directly in the pan. We can also steam them briefly in the Instant Pot to speed up the process.

• To steam the long beans - Place the chopped beans in a steamer basket and then place them on a trivet inside the Instant Pot. Ensure the main steel pot has about an inch of water in the bottom. Set the Instant Pot in steam mode and set the timer for 2 minutes. Once the cooking process is complete, release the pressure in 5 minutes and remove the strainer from the pot.

• Heat a wide pan and add the oil. Once the oil heats up, add the seasoning ingredients - mustard seeds followed by urad dal, red chilies, curry leaves, and then asafoetida.

• Let the mustard seeds crackle. Once the urad dal is golden brown, add the steamed yard-long beans.

• Add the soaked and drained moong dal as well and mix everything. Add salt and cook on low heat for about 5-7 minutes. Keep stirring the beans occasionally, so they don't stick to the pan.

Pro Tip - My mother always adds a little sugar in any stirfry/poriyal with coconut and this makes the curry more flavorful. If using sugar, add about 2 teaspoons of sugar now.

• Add the grated coconut to the karamani poriyal and mix everything well. Cook for a minute and then take it off the heat.

• Long beans curry is now ready to serve. Karamani curry is the best stir fry in a typical South Indian lunch menu.

Expert Tips

• Choose fresh and tender long beans/karamani to make the poriyal.
• Long beans do not take long to cook. Cook it just enough to maintain the crispness.
• Sauteeing the karamani poriyal in coconut oil makes it even more flavorful.
• Adding a little sugar makes the long beans curry delicious. This is completely optional though.
• We could add some chopped onions when sauteeing the seasoning.