Coconut Green Bean Curry

I bought coconut milk from the grocery store a few weeks ago, but have not found an Indian recipe to use it in until I came upon this recipe. I believe coconut and green beans taste very well together so let's see how this one turns out ...

1 lb green beans, washed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 onions, ground into paste
1 1/2 tomatoes, ground into paste
1 cup coconut milk or 4 tbsp shredded coconut
1/4 cup cashewnuts
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chili powder
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt to taste

1. Wash the green beans. Once they dry, chop them into 1/2 inch pieces.
2. In pot of boiling water, boil the green beans until they are al dente. Drain and cool under cold running water.
3. Heat oil in pan and add the mustard seeds. Once they have spluttered, add the cashewnuts and 30 seconds later add the onion paste. Keep stirring until the onion paste turns pink. Then add in the ginger-garlic paste.
4. Next add the tomato paste and keep stirring so paste does not stick to pan. When oil starts to leave the sides of the pan, add the garam masala, turmeric and red chili powder. Stir for a minute.
5. Add the coconut milk or shredded coconut and stir for another minute.
6. Now add the cooked green beans to the gravy. Stir again and cook for 5 more minutes. Add salt and 1 cup of water and bring the curry to a boil.
7. Garnish with chopped tomatoes and chopped cilantro and serve hot with rice or roti.

The curry turned out good. It did seem there was something missing, though. We figured maybe adding more masala next time (i.e. onion paste, green chili-ginger-garlic paste). The recipe only calls for 1/2 cup coconut milk, but I ended up adding the whole packet, which is 1 cup. We thought it would make the curry heavy, but it actually wasn't that heavy at all. Another keeper!