Picture a sun-drenched courtyard between two homes in Punjab where the air is thick with the aroma of cumin and simmering beans. Farmers work the adjacent fields while women move among each other, peeling onions, chopping tomatoes, and stirring a pot over open flames while sipping steaming hot cups of chai, gossiping and laughing. The children run in playful chaos, long, glossy braids bouncing on their backs as they weave around the women at work. Finally, Rajma Chawal, a hearty, spicy dish of kidney beans, is finished. The farmers return from the fields and children circle their grandmother. Together, they dive with all 5 fingers into their steaming bowls of curry.

This is the scene today’s guest, Lopa, pictures so clearly when she imagines Auntie Aruna as a child back in Punjab, the home Auntie left forever as a young woman.

Lopa and Auntie Aruna didn’t meet until many decades later, when Auntie was in her 60’s. And really, she was Lopa’s landlady, not her relative.

Mind you, she was not a profitable landlady - she made no money whatsoever off Lopa, only charging her enough to cover a rise in HOA fees that she and her husband couldn’t afford.

Auntie was, as Lopa says, a typical Punjabi auntie—boisterous, generous, and fiercely nurturing. She was a teacher, best friend, and grandmother to Lopa. In her Bombay kitchen, Auntie taught Lopa to cook while perched on her pillow-lined barstool directing, gossiping, laughing, just like the woman in that courtyard all those years ago.

Auntie’s Rajma Chawal has become Lopa’s signature dish. In a country with so many distinct culinary identities, this humble dish helped Lopa discover so much more than just confidence in the kitchen - it helped her develop her own voice and a sense of identity and belonging. And more even than that, Rajma Chawal takes Lopa right into the heart of Auntie’s Punjabi culture, the belief that cooking is meant to be shared.

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Lopa's Storied Recipe: Rajma Chawal

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