The following simple, flavourful, nutritious recipe is one of my daughter’s favorites: Mung Bean Dahl. When I told her we were going to make it for dinner tonight and I wanted her to help me with taking a picture of the pretty green mung beans, she got so excited I thought she would break a leg jumping up and down. It was hard for her to hold still for the picture. I love the enthusiasm of four year olds.
Mung beans are easy to cook. They don’t require soaking and cook within half an hour. They are also relatively easy to digest and don’t cause the same flatulence that other harder to digest beans do. Mung beans offer 14 gms of protein per cooked cup. Mung beans are also a good source of dietary fiber and contain thiamin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and copper, and are a good source of folate.
Mung Bean Dahl
1 1/2 cups dry mung beans
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil or ghee
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1″ knob ginger root, grated finely
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
Boil four to six cups of water depending on how soupy you like your dahl. Rinse the mung beans and add them to the water. Simmer for 30-45 minutes or until the beans are soft and mushy. You cannot overcook mung beans. While cooking, saute the onion, ginger and garlic in the oil or ghee. Add spices. When the beans are cooked add the salt to the beans and water. Then pour beans and water into onion, garlic, ginger, spice mixture. Mix together. Taste and modify spices and salt as desired. Serve on a bed of rice or with some chunky bread and a side salad. I like to make sure there are some orange segments or red pepper or some other vegetable or fruit in the salad. Vitamin C helps with the absorption of the iron in the mung beans.
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- Vegetarian Foodie Friday: 3 Bean Salad
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Tags: dinner, Foodie Fridays
Yum! This recipe looks good. I just got back from NM. amd had a soup similar to this only with lots of curry in it, I was thinking the peas that was in it was chick peas, now I am thinking it was mung beans.
This sounds good! I don’t think I ever had Mung beans before, what type of cuisine is this commonly found in? Also, can I get this at your average grocery store or do you recommend a speciality store? (Sorry for all the questions!)
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yummm! i love any form of dahl. thanks for the recipe
THat’s great! I have all these mung beans that I ordered in bulk that I tried to sprout, but could never get them to sprout as well as store bought, so this will be an excellent use for them!
I tried this and was the only one who ate it at dinner. My husband said it was a bit crunchy! Anyway…I went over to the stove and realized that while we were eating it had really turned into dahl! I hadn’t cooked it long enough! Maybe my beans were old and needed to simmer longer…anyway it was so delicious. I haven’t eaten so much of a food in a long time. I think my body was craving all the goodness in the mung beans. Thanks!
Whoops! I’m glad it turned out for you in the end! You can’t really overcook mung beans so maybe I should change the post to read “cook until done.” 45 mins should do it though. Thanks for the feedback.
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